


Cherry Bomb

by mantisbelle



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Agent Carolina/Female OC, Background Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Chorus Trilogy (Red vs. Blue), Established Felix | Isaac Gates/Locus | Samuel Ortez, F/M, Felix | Isaac Gates Being a Dick, Infiltration, M/M, Multi, On Hiatus, Slow Burn, Space Pirates, Tags May Change, Threesome - F/M/M, Trans Male Character, War Crimes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2020-07-29 01:48:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 78,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20074117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mantisbelle/pseuds/mantisbelle
Summary: This Fic Has Been Discontinued IndefinitelyFirst there's rumors about some mercenaries using armor equipment that's about ten times above their pay grade.Next, it's weird transmissions that don't seem to make much sense.Before she knows it, Carolina's in someone else's armor, infiltrating a base in the middle of absolute nowhere, surrounded by space pirates who don't know a damn thing about who she is or why she's there.Dismantling an illegal military project from the inside, it turns out, is hard work. It doesn't help that the two guys in charge of it are assholes of the nth degree.





	1. Outpost Echo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_felix_mcscouty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_felix_mcscouty/gifts).

> Been working on this for a the_felix_mcscouty for a little while. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Also read the tags. They may not always be completely be up to date, but read them anyways.

The new armor doesn’t fit quite like her old armor. 

That wasn’t to say that there was anything really _ wrong _ with it, she just felt wrong wearing it. It was like putting on a new pair of boots that hadn’t gotten the chance to get broke in yet. It was _ fine _ , it just wasn’t _ hers _. 

In many ways, it _ was _ an improvement though, half-baked as it currently was. She still had adjustments to make the fit better, and pieces of equipment from Project Freelancer to install. Even once she was through with it she wasn’t sure that she’d make it feel quite as good as her old armor. The armor that had been made for her, specialized and customized. Bespoke. For her and only her.

In a way, changing her armor to something that she hadn't used all through Project Freelancer was a good thing. It was a new layer of separation from that history. It was a chance to metaphorically wash her hands of it, even if the blood would never _ really _wash off. 

A sad part of her knew that nobody would recognize her in the new armor. At least, not until the Chameleon Unit was properly installed and she could alter the color to her favorite shade of blue. It was the same blue that her childhood bedroom had been painted.

But the standard steel grey would have to do. The grey would have to do in the same ways that the newer gen armor would.

It was, she hoped, merely transitional.

The new armor was too light. It also didn’t protect nearly as much as her old kit had. The composite bodysuit from her old gear wasn’t completely compatible with the new armor so she’d had to loot that too. By and large it was the biggest issue, since it doesn’t fit quite right either. There were spots where it felt like it was far too loose. Doing a patch job with needle and thread would never work with the bodysuit like it did for a pair of jeans. Fitting a bodysuit with a gel layer required _ specialized _ equipment and a deft hand. Neither of which she possessed. 

She just felt _ exposed _ in the worst ways. The armor left her less covered, but it was also so light that she would never need the adjustment period she’d had when she’d gotten her PFL-issued gear. She could move and run faster. She could make more extreme bends than she’d been able to before. The new helmet wasn’t bad, with its cleaner user interface, and its refined HUD display. She could customize it more than she could her old HUD. 

The new armor wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. It was just different. 

She just didn’t feel like herself anymore. Not that it was _ really _ a bad thing, all things considered. 

In a way, the best thing for her current mission was her not feeling anything like herself. For all purposes she _ wasn’t _ herself anymore. 

Agent Carolina had disappeared from the wreckage of the Hand of Merope. 

The woman that she was since the crash was someone different, someone _ else _ , all in the name of _ necessity _.

_ Necessity is the mother of invention, _ her father’s voice whispered in the back of her mind. The Mother of Invention. Another ship that Agent Carolina had ceased to exist in the wreckage of, another self already long lost. 

Actually, she might just have bad luck with ship wrecks. 

“Hey, C?” Another version of her father distracted her away from her thoughts. He was more of a brother, really, all things considered. He understood her in ways that nobody else really ever could. “Mind focusing on the fucking mission for a minute?” His hologram appeared by her shoulder, a familiar shade of blue that was different from her favorite, but just as comforting. Seeing it in her peripheral vision was quickly becoming a soothing balm when she was out in the field.

“Sorry, Epsilon.” Carolina said, fidgeting in her armor, unable to get comfortable. “Is there news?”

“Yeah.” Epsilon answered, flashing a new window on her visor for her to look at. “The chick that had your armor before you left us some stuff to use.” 

And _ that _ was a bit of a surprise. Even a pleasant one. “What kind of _ stuff _ are we talking?”

“Well,” Epsilon flashed part of the HUD again. “For one, we’ve got a base location to use. She left it logged into the in-suit tracking systems. Pretty sloppy if you ask me. I mean, rookie mistake.”

Carolina was _ certain _that if she’d asked the right people, she would find that Epsilon-Church, whoever he was, had made the same mistake countless times before. 

A pang of loss in her chest reminded her to stay on track. Her friends were fine. She had a mission to do. Her and Epsilon both. 

“A little.”

“_ And,” _ Epsilon continued. “I’ve got some communications from whoever’s in charge of their forces.” 

“Not Locus or Felix?” Carolina asked, recalling the pair of mercenaries that she was trying to track in the first place. Equipment that was way above their pay grade had turned into something else entirely.

“Nah.” Epsilon answered. “Looks like those assholes actually bother to delegate. I’m as surprised as you are about it.” 

Carolina _ wasn’t _ surprised, but that wasn’t worth discussing. 

“And?”

“Apparently the leader at the base, someone named Go,” Epsilon explained, “made a troop recall this morning. Sounds like they’re expecting the big boys on base and they want to have their shit together for it. Might be a good way in.” 

And that certainly _ made _ sense. A recall wasn’t the same as a retreat, so Carolina had to guess that Epsilon was only right on that point. Carolina brought the tracking information to center. “So we’re trying to get in then?” She asked. “Do we have a codename to use or anything?”

“Girl didn’t leave that info in the armor. Probably a reason for that.” Epsilon explained, apparently already searching through files if the way that his avatar flickered was any indicator. “Nobody wants to have their next of kin turn out to be war criminals—”

And god, if Carolina didn’t have so many things to say to _ that. _

_ “Get to the point.” _

“Fuck, okay.” Epsilon replied. “It looks like it’s probably a supply drop. Maybe even new recruits. Get in and scope it out and we’ll work from there. If anyone asks your name… eh, just improvise. I know you’re good at it.” 

“How comforting.” 

“What else do you want from me?”

“Nothing.” Carolina answered, fidgeting with the edges of her greaves one more time before she checked that her pistol and rifle were ready to go. “You did great, Epsilon. Let’s just focus on getting to this camp and we'll work from there.” 

“Sounds great, C.” Epsilon set the tracking information to the corner of her HUD. “We've got a hell of a walk to go. Should get started now.” 

Carolina frowned. “_ Thank you, _Epsilon.” She said as she turned in the direction she needed to go and began what would be a very long walk.

* * *

Some more extensive digging into the tracking information that Epsilon had found on the helmet was able to give a name to the hole in the ground which was apparently where the mercenaries Locus and Felix were running their operation. At the very least, it was one of the places that they went to run things. 

Carolina and Epsilon soon learned that Outpost Echo was if nothing else, appropriately named. 

The base wasn’t anything special to look at. It was simply a small collection of prefabricated barracks and buildings which had all been installed at the bottom of a valley where the hills around it rose so high that the only way to find the damn thing would be to scale them all the way. They rolled around the base, leaving anyone who looked down at it the distinct feeling that Outpost Echo was sinking and being swallowed up by the land around it. 

If someone stood down among the barracks, they would be able to shout and hear themselves for days, if Carolina had to guess. Either that or they’d feel like they might have been crushed by the hills around them.

But Carolina knew perfectly well that wasn’t why Outpost Echo was likely given its name. 

The name Outpost Echo merely implied that it was one of at least five bases. And that it was the fifth of those bases to have been constructed. 

The phonetic alphabet had a certain habit of sucking the fun and romance out of things. 

She’d had a friend once who tended to go by a name from the phonetic alphabet on the side. He’d used it from everything to making discreet mail orders, to picking up companions at bars, to just about everything in between.

Foxtrot-12, York, whatever his name was died on an island fortress in a fight against a man that he’d once called friend. 

Some days, Carolina missed Agent York. The fact that her access to his logs was only temporary was a type of blessing in and of itself. She couldn’t become like her father because of it. 

She tried to push it from her mind. “Epsilon, I’m installing the chameleon unit before we go in.” She explained to her AI partner in the hopes that she could get it running for at least long enough so that she could make it down to the base by blending in with the surroundings. Stealth was key.

“Yeah, I got it.” Epsilon flashed up at her shoulder, stance managing to be confident despite the fact that Carolina could _ literally _ see through him and that she was significantly taller than him. But he had nothing to fear. Carolina would never pull him. “Put it in.” 

Carolina knelt down in the dirt and pried open a small compartment on her chest piece so that she could find the equipment slots. 

She paused though, just before she slipped the chip that would run the chameleon unit into place. It was _ odd _that her new armor had slots installed for Freelancer styled equipment. Either Project Freelancer’s patents had leaked when the project had failed, or the technology had been poached. It was also possible that PFL had been building armor with some sort of universal compatibility in mind, but Carolina had her doubts. PFL had been working with fairly proprietary equipment, after all.

All of the options were a little more than _ weird _to think about. There was too much that felt wrong about it.

Carolina didn’t have the time to waste thinking about such matters though. She slid the chip into place and felt it lock in almost immediately. A hard press of her thumb down against the chip in its lodging confirmed that it wasn’t going anywhere. Carolina slapped the compartment shut and stretched her arms. 

In the end, she’d know whether it was installed properly once she got going enough for it to potentially get knocked out of position.

“Wanna try it out?” She asked Epsilon. “I think I’ve got it in there.”

“Yeah, you’ve got it. Give me about… yeah, now.” Epsilon only nodded his head and Carolina watched as the nondescript steel grey shade of her armor shifted into her favorite shade of aqua blue, before Epsilon turned it to the same brown as the dirt under her feet. “Looks like it’s working. I think you’re good to go, C.” 

“Good.” Carolina said, feeling at least a little bit relieved by Epsilon’s confirmation. Things sure as hell could have been a lot worse. “Thanks for the help, Epsilon.”

“Eh, you know how it is.” He bounced confidently, his avatar lighting up the edges of her armor. “Anytime.”

The sound of a Pelican’s engines distracted Carolina away from Epsilon and her’s shared conversation. “Hide.” She told Epsilon, and he flickered out of existence at her side so that he couldn’t be seen. Carolina kept her eyes on the ship as it began to lower itself into place. 

_ Shit _, she didn’t have time to waste. As things were, she was already behind schedule.

“Try to keep up!” She told Epsilon before she simply broke into a sprint and began to head toward the Pelican itself in the hopes that she could make herself blend in and get a good idea of what was happening. If she was lucky, Carolina could just slot herself in among the many personnel on site. The chameleon unit had always been able to allow for her to do it before without any trouble. 

In theory, some space pirates would simply be more of the same. 

Either way, as Carolina sprinted toward Outpost Echo, all she could think of was how she couldn’t wait for the chance to get the rest of her equipment installed into the new armor. At least with all of it in place she could be comfortable knowing that she was protected. She just couldn’t use it in any way other than sparingly if she wanted to be able to keep a low profile. 

People would _ notice _ proprietary equipment from a failed military project if it got used left and right. 

She shot behind the Pelican just as it began to touch down. Clouds of dust billowed around it and gave Carolina a modicum of additional cover.

Somehow, and Carolina wasn’t quite sure as to _ how _, she managed to get there before the ramp to the Pelican even began to drop down. She pressed herself against the back of the Pelican in the hopes that she hadn’t been noticed, while Epsilon bathed her armor in the same shade of gun metal green as the ship’s exterior. 

“Hey, C?” Epsilon asked her, deciding to pipe in his voice over her radio comms, just quiet enough that only Carolina could hear him. “We’ve got a helmet cam. Want me to run it? Could be useful to us later.”

_ Yes please, _ Carolina thought, and she heard only a tiny beep as a confirmation. The tiny red dot appeared on her HUD to confirm that Epsilon was in fact recording everything that she saw. Feeling somewhat comforted, Carolina slid her way along the Pelican, careful to keep her new armor from scraping against its hull. 

She peeked around the side only when she heard the ramp beginning to lower. 

Carolina ducked underneath the ship and approached the ramp itself, listening close as feet began to trail their ways down the ramp itself. She closed her eyes and did her best to focus on the number of feet that were moving up above her. It didn’t sound like it was a small number of people moving crates. Nothing was being wheeled down either. Human cargo then, if she had to guess. If the ship had been carrying crates, it would have been obvious.

“Five people_ ,” _ Epsilon told her. “Looks like they just got a shipment of new recruits in the mail. You think space pirates get same day delivery? I hear Amazon’s Military Support Prime is a good deal right now, something about partnering with Char—”

Whatever he was saying got drowned out by the sound of the Pelican’s ramp whirring as it prepared to retract, just as the last of the space pirates began to unboard.

Carolina couldn’t allow herself to dignify Epsilon’s question with any sort of _ real _response. She just pressed herself in against the ramp so she couldn’t be seen, and leaned to the side so that she could get a good view of what things looked like on the other side of the ship. All that she needed was a good opening. 

With the side where nobody was standing identified, Carolina realized that she had her chance. 

Epsilon acted first, altering the shade of her armor back to the same standard steel that it had been when she’d taken it in the first place. The same standard steel shade that matched every other person at Outpost Echo, and probably more than a few people _ outside _of it. With her armor the right color, Carolina was able to simply slide her way into place in the line, second to the end. 

Nobody seemed to notice her. It was a relief in and of itself.

Carolina stood up tall, back military straight, and waited for whatever was about to happen next. If she and Epsilon were right, then she could make herself fit in as nothing more than a new recruit. If she was taken in as a new recruit then she would have managed to successfully infiltrate a space pirate base. Or at least have managed her way past the first major hurdle which was simply getting inside in the first place. 

If not, they were going to have _ other _problems to contend with. Problems which would at least require for Carolina to steal yet another suit of armor for herself. Whether or not that suit would fit even as half as well as the one she had on currently was a gamble in itself. 

And even then, if she failed, it would only leave the space pirates on high alert. Getting caught could not happen under _ any _circumstances.

A woman in full armor walked to the front of the small crowd of space pirates that was forming there. A small selection of specific soldiers stood just behind her. She looked over the group of new recruits, Carolina included, turned to the soldiers behind her, and muttered something to them which Carolina wasn’t able to make out. 

“Sounds like something about choosing new squad members,” Epsilon provided her with an answer without needing to be asked. “Just play along. Think of it like being picked for kickball in school.”

Carolina had _ never _ been picked last for sports in school, especially not dodgeball. And even despite what she was actually doing she couldn’t help but feel at least a _ little _ bit miffed at the fact that she was chosen third instead of first overall. 

The man that chose her didn’t look like the strongest soldier. His enforcer style helmet bobbed as he let out a breath of relief. Mostly, he managed to look completely unimposing, despite the pounds upon pounds of plate and metal he was wearing.

“I always hate doing this,” The man said. “Since you just came in you _ should _ have a good idea of what we do here. Probably.” He let out another breath, this time managing to sound annoyed with the entire conversation at hand. “Which is mostly nothing while we wait for clear orders from either of the mercs.” He looked back at the crowd over his shoulder. “So I guess I should just get to the point, right?”

“It wouldn’t hurt.” Carolina replied, unable to help feeling at least a little bit amused. 

“I’ve got his—” Epsilon started only to get drowned out by the man continuing to talk. When the man really got going, Epsilon gave up entirely. 

“I’m Jordan Reynolds but everyone here just calls me…” He let out a resigned noise. “_ Darnoldson _ . Nobody calls me by my real name _ , even when I ask _ . So I’m Darnoldson. I really hate that I have to introduce myself like this.” He seemed to shuffle from side to side as he introduced himself to her. “Since I picked you out of the recruit line, that means that you’re on my squad now. Which is good since we’ve been needing someone to replace Ehlers since the Chorus Fever got him.” Darnoldson paused, like he was realizing something. “You _ are _vaccinated, right? Losing two that way is a pretty good way to get a demotion, and Go has my head on the chopping block next. I really don’t want to lose my job just because you aren’t vaccinated, or because you let your vaccinations run out.”

“So Go’s a real person then.” Epsilon added a note to Carolina’s HUD. “Noted.”

Carolina nodded along, both to Epsilon’s question and Darnoldson’s. She also made a mental note to be sure to install York’s old healing unit in her armor next. She had a feeling that Chorus Fever, whatever that was, probably wasn’t very pleasant to have to suffer through. And it wasn’t like she’d gotten a chance to get vaccinated against whatever native viruses were on a planet that she crash-landed on. 

“I am.” She lied.

“Oh, good.” Darnoldson seemed at least a little bit relieved. “So I guess that I should get you introduced to the rest of the squad but—” He looked back over his shoulder just as the Pelican that Carolina had pretended to come on began to take off. “It looks like a forth of the team just _ left _.” 

And there were _ definitely _ things that Carolina could have said to that, but she chose to bite her tongue instead. 

Mostly, it seemed like her supposed squad leader didn’t have his shit together. Or like he was doing his absolute best to look like he had his shit together. 

In a way, she _ almost _ felt bad for Darnoldson.

Almost.

“I guess?” Carolina replied, following along as her new squad leader led her over to one of the many prefabricated barracks. As soon as the two of them were inside Carolina was presented with three doors to use. Darnoldson hesitated, like he wasn’t quite sure of where to start. A part of Carolina wondered whether he was freshly promoted to squad leader or not. The way that he continued did nothing to assuage her concerns. “Uh, so this is what standard squad housing looks like.” Darnoldson rapped his knuckles against the door that was directly in front of them, as opposed to one of the ones at their sides. “Bathroom and showers are in there, only two stalls though so we tend to go in shifts. Usually if you can hear water running it’s full.” 

And for the first time in her life, Carolina _ actually _ missed the locker room on the Mother of Invention. 

Carolina looked at the two remaining doors. “Let me guess,” She started. “Rooms on each side?”

“That’s—” Darnoldson started, only to deflate a half -second later. “Yeah. That. I’m on the left side with McTavish. You and Coyote will be on the right. Before you start worrying about it, Ehler’s stuff is already gone and your bunks have been disinfected… several times now. So you should be safe. Probably.” 

“Thanks for that.” 

“And Coyote isn’t _ usually _here so you’ll get some privacy.” Darnoldson pushed the door to the right room open so that Carolina could see what lay inside. “That’s not to say that she’s never here, but it’s often enough that she’s gone.” 

There were two bunks in the room, one against each of the far walls of the room. The closets in the room looked like they were made of cheap plastic, meant to slot together in about twelve seconds. At the end of each of the beds was a foot locker which was clearly large enough to place armor in. A pair of small desks and a single gun cabinet filled the rest of the space. One of the two bunks had what _ clearly _wasn’t a set of standard issue sheets on it. 

The other was bare, save for the simple bedding that sat folded in the middle of the thin mattress.

All in all, it wasn’t the absolute _ worst _set of warzone amenities that she’d ever seen. Not that it mattered. 

Carolina could definitely make it work in the long run. Not having her bunk mate there meant that she could at least temporarily work on her armor without raising any red flags over her having so much equipment to install, or an AI. Either of those getting found out would surely sink her entire infiltration in one go. 

“Seems good enough?” Darnoldson asked. “I know that it isn’t a whole lot.” He looked at her directly, holding his head up high. “Did I—”

The left door in the tiny hallway opened behind him, and another man in armor poked his head out. “Is that the new girl?” The new man asked, head bobbing along as he spoke. He seemed curious, if nothing else. 

“Yeah.” Darnoldson replied. The second man, clad in simple recruit’s armor, stepped out into the hall to join Carolina and Darnoldson. Carolina couldn’t help but briefly wonder if she should have shown up in recruit’s armor herself. 

“Titus McTavish,” the second man introduced himself to her, almost too nonchalantly. “Former new guy. Welcome to the squad, new girl.” 

Epsilon left a note on her HUD which seemed to be an attempt at establishing what her squad’s chain of command looked like. Somehow her roommate’s absence left her with significant questions about how accurate it actually was. 

Surely there was a reason for Coyote’s absence. Epsilon made a note to try and figure out if Coyote was the woman’s real name or not.

“Nice to meet you.” Carolina said, not sure whether or not she needed to tread carefully with this new man. “I’m Carolina McCallister.”

“Carolina?” Darnoldson asked, saying the name slowly like he thought that there was something wrong with it. “I could have sworn we were—” His voice trailed off and he shook his head. “Weird coincidence, I guess. Have you done this sort of thing before, or are you just standard UNSC like pretty much everyone else?”

“Standard UNSC.” Carolina lied. Mentioning Project Freelancer was _ suicide _. As least if anyone tried to look into the history of Carolina McCallister it would look mostly legitimate. She’d taken good care to make sure that her ‘history’ was airtight when she’d taken on the identity after Project Freelancer in the first place. “I just needed the money and it was a paying job. Bounty work isn’t exactly stable.” 

“Tell me about it.” Darnoldson mumbled under his breath.

“Well, that's good.” McTavish spoke over the squad leader. “Since that’s the only reason anyone is here. And now that you’re here, there's no getting off of this shit hole of a planet until it’s over with anyways. So welcome to the ranks, you’re stuck with us.” 

And god, if he didn’t sound like he was anything other than happy about it. 

“Good to know.” Carolina replied, not sure whether it was actually good to know or whether it was simply a sign that she’d made a mistake. “So—”

“We’ll keep you up to date with the schedule.” Darnoldson spoke up. “When Locus and Felix show up you’ll probably get an assessment to make sure that you’re actually good enough to fight. Not that it matters since you’re stuck here anyways.” 

McTavish let out a little amused snort. “The silver lining is that they need men badly enough that the standards are _ nice and low _these days. You shouldn’t have any trouble as long as you can follow basic orders and shoot straight.” 

Darnolds sighed heavily, shaking his head in resignation. “As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right. The Mercs have different standards but you’ll be fine. You’ll see them… whenever one of them decides to show up. Once one approves you the other should too. Locus can be a hardass but if you’re competent you’ll be fine.” 

Yet another note from Epsilon popped up on Carolina’s HUD. He was apparently doing his best to work his way into whatever electronics were in the building with them. He was at least looking for a written version of the day to day schedule for Outpost Echo. If he found anything else, then Carolina hoped that it was something that would be at least halfway useful. 

“That’s good to know,” Carolina said quietly. “And my bunkmate?”

“She’s cool.” McTavish answered. “Shouldn’t give you too much trouble though. Coyote’s pretty hands off.”

If that was a comfort, Carolina wasn’t quite sure. Space was good, but she’d eventually have to share space with Coyote, whoever she was. A part of her had a hunch that Darnoldson and McTavish were a little bit afraid of her, so Carolina wasn’t sure what to think. A part of her feared that she and the woman would end up clashing for whatever reason. 

Whatever reason wasn’t ‘Carolina is there to infiltrate,’ at least. 

She looked to the empty bed and let out a sigh. “I guess I should probably get settled in, then.” 

“Yeah.” Darnoldson said. “Probably. I’ll grab you when food’s coming out. Real work starts when the mercs show up so you should take your free time where you can get it. Might as well take what time you can.” 

Considering the number of equipment pieces she needed to install, Carolina _ needed _the free time. Desperately. 

“Sounds good.” She said as she stepped into the room for the first time and reached out so she could start to close the door behind her.

“Oh!” Darnoldson spoke up, interrupting her with a hand on the door. “Welcome to delta squad, McCallister. We’re glad to have you.”

“Thanks.” Carolina forced the words out, glad that her helmet was there to shield her expressions. “I’ll get settled in.”

With that she closed the door, and she put herself to work. 

Starting with getting her bed made.


	2. Sharp As Knives

It only took Carolina about two days before she was settled in for what appeared to be the normal day-to-day functions and routines at Outpost Echo. 

The most surprising thing about being surrounded on all sides by space pirates was the absolute normalcy of the lifestyle. If it weren’t for her own knowledge of the situation on Chorus (as riddled with holes as it was,) Carolina would have thought it was just like any other military installment. People abandoned somewhere to keep a location locked down until something started happening. Sitting around and _ waiting. _

And much like the Reds and Blues, they mostly stood around and _ talked _. 

She’d gotten her equipment mostly installed on the first day. Her armor wasn’t a perfect fit yet (something which Carolina fully intended to correct sooner than later) but with the healing unit installed and more than a little guesswork on Epsilon’s part and a decent amount of research had her _ fairly _ certain that she was vaccinated against Chorus Fever, which was apparently a particularly unpleasant thing to have to suffer. 

Carolina, for one, never wanted to have to experience bleeding out the eyes firsthand. 

And that was one of the _ milder _ symptoms that she and Epsilon had managed to find out about. 

Nobody picked up on the fact that she was working with Epsilon. The few days that she’d spent at Outpost Echo had been used to try and established back doors into every system that they could find for Epsilon to exploit. So far Epsilon had been able to get into roughly twelve personal datapads, and then another half dozen helmet communication systems on top of that. Security cameras around the base were also mostly unsecured, if broadcasting on encrypted channels. 

For the most part, what he found was more of the same. Always the same sets of instructions, the same vague commands, the same recorded schedules. It was almost looking like the men might have been under orders where they weren’t allowed to do _ anything _ without one of the Merc’s commands, and then they were required to delete any data after that. 

It Carolina had to guess, they didn’t just _ delete _data. They seemed to have to do full scrubs of every trace of what they were doing. The only way something stayed recorded was by means of personal negligence. 

All things considered, it was almost tragic just how many of the space pirates clearly didn’t use codenames of _ any _ sorts. Darnoldson only used one by coincidence, mostly because people outright refused to use his actual name which he seemed to prefer in every way to the unfortunate nickname he’d been cursed with. On the other hand, Titus McTavish didn’t _ sound _ like a real person’s name, but apparently _ was _Titus Angus McTavish’s legal name, and in addition to that Titus Angus McTavish was 28 years old with a criminal record a half-mile long. 

The only ones that Carolina had found that seemed to conclusively use codenames were the mercenaries themselves and Coyote, her squad mate-slash-roommate that she was _ still _ yet to meet. 

It made Carolina’s stomach churn to think of what would happen to the space pirates should one of them die. What would happen if the spectacularly illegal nature of their operation were to get found out. 

At the end, someone always had to be informed. There was always a next of kin. 

Carolina McCallister wasn’t a real person, and that was a _ blessing _ . It was the oddest twist of fate that her not having any family aside from Epsilon was a _ good _ thing. The last thing she would have wanted was anyone finding out that she’d died working as a mercenary in an illegal operation.

She couldn’t even begin to imagine that shame. 

“Hey, C.” Epsilon popped up by her shoulder as she sat on her bed, having consolidated what notes she could over the course of the morning. Having a paper trail was risky but somehow having a digital one seemed even riskier in the long run. Epsilon made sure to keep his volume as low as he could. “Might want to think about packing up. Lunch is in twenty and apparently it might be real food today. Not that I’m getting my hopes up.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?” She asked, beginning to shuffle the paper that she had in front of her back together. 

“Got onto Basebook.” Epsilon responded, his projection shooting over to rest just above Carolina’s helmet. “You wouldn’t believe the stupid bullshit these guys post about.” 

“Any worse than what the Reds and Blues post?” Carolina chuckled. They'd been doing what they could to keep up with the Reds and Blues. When they’d been active, there had been at least something. Photos of a mantis tank wearing clothes, mostly. 

Half of the activity had gone dead after the Reds and Blues had gotten captured though.

Wash hadn’t been very active, but knowing that he was at least _ alive _ had been nice. 

“Not by much.” Epsilon responded. “But I swear to god if I have to read one more post about _ fucking ping pong _we’re going to have some fucking problems! I never thought I’d miss Sarge’s weird basebook rants about the color blue, but I do. At least that shit was entertaining. I might start installing malware on everything just to give these assholes something to do that’s not bitch on social media. I’m sure these assholes would love to hear about hot singles in their area.” 

“Has anyone ever fallen for that?” Carolina deadpanned, picking up the helmet. 

“Tucker sure as hell has. Probably helped that Grif’s sister was the one that posted the ad. And he still managed to strike out.” Epsilon replied, without Carolina needing to even ask. “But I’m serious. Malware. So much fucking malware. These guys are going to be seeing malware in their fucking nightmares.”

“Wouldn’t it be such a tragedy that they have to deal with that.” She rolled her eyes, standing up tall and stretching. Her back arched and it felt goddamn pleasant. 

“Yeah!” Epsilon nearly shrieked. “It would be!”

There was a knock on the door which was enough to make Carolina nearly jolt straight out of her skin. Epsilon blinked out into nothing and Carolina fixed her helmet on top of her head in the hopes that it would be able to help her maintain her cover. 

Carolina got up, stretched her legs, and went to the door. 

She opened it just a crack to find that McTavish and Darnoldson both were on the other side. 

“What is it?”

“Food soon.’ McTavish replied. ”And Darnoldson’s not letting anyone go to the mess tent by themselves.“ 

“Is that so?” Carolina deadpanned, turning her gaze to Darnoldson. The man just seemed to sigh in frustration at McTavish’s explanation. She could only guess that McTavish had only completely blown the matter out of proportion. “You know I can take care of myself?”

Darnoldson nodded, tilting his head away from her almost shyly. “I’m just trying to make sure that you’re fine.” He said quietly. “Since you’re the—”

“New girl, right.” Carolina couldn’t help that feeling of frustration from creeping up her spine. Of all the things that she had to deal with, it was certainly was one of the less nice ones. She’d been hoping for an easy infiltration but playing nice with the space pirates was really a waste of time in any other situation. “Fine, I’ll come with you.” 

“Good.” McTavish said, already pushing his way toward the door. “I’m hungry!”

“You know it’s not going to be real food.” Darnoldson muttered under his breath, annoyed.

McTavish headed on out on his own, which left Carolina and Darnoldson to follow after. Neither of them said anything to the other, if only because there was no reason for it. They were supposed to be a team, but Carolina wasn’t interested with camaraderie. Not with space pirates. 

The Reds and Blues, maybe. 

Things were complicated.

_ Just admit you miss them, _ Epsilon prodded her mentally. 

She couldn’t. It wasn’t as simple as just missing them. There was more to it than that, things which were _ complicated _ and messy. Things which she could barely even talk to Epsilon about when he knew the full extent of just how bad things were.

The mess hall line was short when they got in, which was something that Carolina could be grateful for because it meant that she had to be there for a shorter amount of time on the whole. The only upside of being in the mess hall for a long time was that it gave Epsilon a chance to try and access a larger number of systems at a close range than he would have been able to normally. 

More helmets to access meant more information to access, at least in theory. That didn’t work out quite as well when they were in a situation where everyone was scrubbing their records the second a job was done though. 

But still, Epsilon tried his damnedest to get something.

She and her squad mates did make it through the mess line with relative ease though, and they did manage to pick out a table in the corner. Carolina seated herself with her back to the wall, fully aware of how it probably looked to the trained eye. She’d learned what it meant back in Project Freelancer, after seeing one too many agents come back from the field a little more rattled than one would have realized at first. 

Back to the wall tended to translate to ‘_ paranoid _ .’ There were of course more clinical terms which were the ones which Carolina made a conscious effort to avoid. Thinking about _ those _ too hard tended to cause trouble, the same way that too much introspection always did. 

She wasn’t in the mood to stew over her own shortcomings over her lunch. Or whatever was supposed to pass for lunch.

Carolina pulled off her helmet and set it down at her side. If Epsilon was going to do his thing, she had to be able to trust that he’d just do it. He hadn’t failed her yet. 

“I promise we aren’t usually doing nothing for so long.” Darnoldson said quietly, doing his best to put on a genuine tone. “Typically at least one of the Mercs would have dropped in by now to see how things were going, or at least take some people off on a mission. Tings being quiet for so long isn’t normal.”

Carolina nodded along. “They must be busy then. Probably got worse since that freighter went down.”

“Oh, yeah, they are _ always _busy.” A sharp voice interjected from just out of the corner of Carolina’s vision. She glanced over to see a thin man standing there with an identical tray of food to her own in his hands. “Mind if I sit here, Darnoldson? Not that you’ve got much of a choice.”

Darnoldson seemed to shrink. “Nope.” He muttered, but definitely didn’t seem too happy about it. 

The man seated himself directly across from Carolina and she was struck by just how _ odd _he was. 

He was out of armor, and it was probably the first time that she’d seen _ anyone _ armor-free outside of their little barrack since she’d even ended up on Chorus in the first place. Aside from that, he was sharp featured and slick, with his brown hair a little _ too _perfectly maintained for someone in the middle of a war zone. There was just a bit of five o clock shadow coming in on his face. 

His eyes were hazel, dark and beady. 

She had… absolutely no idea who he was. 

The man poked idly at the protein cube that sat on his tray, eyes glued to Carolina the entire time. When he spoke, it wasn’t to her. 

“So, Darnoldson.” He said, a little too relaxed and a little too easily. “How are you holding up with this new leadership thing? I really wouldn’t want to hear you’re letting your promotion go to waste because let me tell you, you wouldn’t _ believe _ how many guys have before you.” The man poked at the protein again. “Would really hate to have to demote you too.”

_ Holy shit, this is Felix, _ Epsilon informed Carolina with what felt like a strange tweak of the nerves in her neck. _ I’m fucking recording this. And I’m gonna try to get information on him, just keep the asshole talking if you can. I’m probably going to need all the time I can get for this one. _

And that was probably going to be much easier than it should have been, Carolina thought. She looked down at her own tray, with its own block of unappetizing grey protein sitting on top of it. Her stomach churned at the sight because she really, _ really _ didn’t want to have to swallow it down. 

So much for real food. 

Darnoldson poked at his own protein slab, but Carolina couldn’t help but feel like it seemed like he was being somehow defensive when he did it. “It’s been working out, sir.” He said stiffly. “Not having—”

“Ah, _ shit _.” Felix frowned, cutting Darnoldson off before he could get another word in edgewise. “Right, I forgot. Your friend's still out right? What was her name again. Fox? Wolf? Some sort of dog, right?”

_ “Coyote. _ ” Darnoldson corrected. “And yeah, she’s still on that mission. The one that _ you _assigned her to go on. Alone.”

“Well, tell her to call me when she gets back. Things get _ real _boring around here.” Felix frowned and shoved his fork into the protein block a little too violently, like he was suddenly angry at something. “I mean, christ, be glad you don’t have to approve new recruits and shit. Do you know how much of an asshole Locus—” He cut himself off and shook his head like he was deeply annoyed with himself.

McTavish let out a snort that Felix thankfully seemed to ignore in favor of continuing his own train of thought. 

“Never mind that.” Felix jerked his head in Carolina’s direction. “That’s your new one, right?”

Darnoldson shot Carolina what she could only describe as a deeply apologetic look. “Yeah, she is.” 

Felix grinned. It became clear in that moment, that there was only one reason that he was there at their table in the first place, and it was Carolina. Screwing with Darnoldson was probably just his idea of dinner entertainment.

He turned himself slightly to fully look at Carolina head on. “So you’re the new girl.”

And already it seemed like some sort of challenge. One which Carolina had absolutely not intentions on backing down on. 

“I am.” Carolina said, making sure to sit up tall. She had a feeling that she and Felix were about the same height both in and out of armor. If it came down to the two of them both needing to fight, she could probably use it to her advantage. An opponent that she was on par with as far as size went was always an easier one than a bigger one. 

Of course, speed had a lot to do with it. And she _ was _fast. Always had been.

Felix’s eyes flicked up and down her in what could only be a sort of impromptu examination. Carolina didn’t let herself show whether it rattled her or not. “Came in with the last shipment?”

“Yes.” 

“Good.” Felix leaned back slightly. “You been assessed yet? By someone other than these assholes.” He gestured to Darnoldson and McTavish both with a flippant wave of his hand. Almost like he didn’t even care that the two of them were there in the first place. “Because I’m not gonna lie, it kind of feels like Control’s skimping out on us these days.” Felix paused. “You are Control’s, right? Because you sure as hell aren’t one of mine. And Locs would have mentioned if you were one of his. And evaluated you before you even made it onto the planet.” 

_ Shit, _ Epsilon commented. _ Figures that not planning out a backstory was gonna bite you in the ass. Make it up. _

And that was about the complete opposite of useful, Carolina couldn’t help but think. 

“I’m Control’s.” She said easily. “Is that a problem?”

“Nah.” Felix mumbled. “Just Control’s a pain in our asses. You’re trained?”

“Yes?”

Felix nodded along. “New armor?”

_ Shit, _ Epsilon nearly shocked her, _ shit, we knew it was obvious, shit! _

“Yeah.” Carolina said. “Issued before I shipped out.”

“_Definitely _skimping on us then. Fucking asshole.”

A weird spike of both rage and indignation rose up in Carolina’s stomach all at once. She was probably better than all of the rest of the space pirates at Outpost Echo _ combined_. She’d eaten men like them for breakfast back in Project Freelancer and had never even thought twice about it. Felix knew absolutely fuck all about her, and he was already assuming that she didn’t have any place there. 

What a fucking _ asshole _.

When she got a chance to cave in his sharp featured face, Carolina hoped that it would feel _ really _ damn good. 

If not, then she didn’t know what she was even doing trying to infiltrate Felix’s forces. 

“I’d hope not.” Carolina replied to him though, tight and frustrated as she ended up sounding. 

Felix raised an eyebrow and leaned in slightly, just enough so that he was resting his forearm on the table. “Been here long?”

“Three days.” 

Felix nodded. “Figures.” He mumbled. “Haven’t seen the field yet?”

“No.” Carolina replied, choosing to leave off the_ sir _since Felix had already proven to her that it was a title that he didn’t really deserve. “But I was told we do a lot of waiting around here.” 

Out of the corner of her eye, Carolina _ thought _ she saw McTavish lean in toward Darnoldson to mutter something, but Carolina had no idea what it was. Unlike what would happen in the usual circumstances, Epsilon gave Carolina no input to work off of. Although, he was certainly recording every bit of information that he could while also probably trying to get any information on Felix at all. 

His radio silence left Carolina only to think that he wasn’t having much luck yet. 

Felix’s expression flattened out. “Well, I guess that these assholes aren’t so wrong about that one, huh Darnoldson?” His head snapped over so that he could look at the squad leader. “You tell the new girl that bit?”

“I—” Darnoldson began to stammer out. Poor idiot. 

_ “ I have a name, Sir.” _Carolina interjected, since it looked like Darnoldson was about thirty seconds from crumbling under Felix’s interrogation anyways. 

Felix seemed to stiffen up all at once, almost like he was surprised to hear even a hint of defiance out of a new recruit. His head turned back toward Carolina, slowly and almost cautiously. 

It left Carolina to wonder where the two of them actually stood in practice. 

“Ah.” Felix said. “I guess you’re right then, red. What’s your name?”

“Carolina McCallister.” She said, voice hard as she recalled the same fake name that she’d been going by for several days. “_ Sir _.”

“Right.” His eyes narrowed. “And I guess I didn’t introduce myself, did I?”

“No.” Carolina bit back. “Felix, right?”

A wide, sharp grin split across Felix’s face. He was weaselly, too slick and sure of himself for it to ever be any good for anyone. This guy was _ dangerous _, and everything about him screamed that fact. It was the sharpness of his grin and the way that his eyes simply managed to look like near black pearls of malice. 

If he grinned and bared his teeth, Carolina almost wouldn’t have been surprised to see him have pointed teeth. 

“Then I supposed my reputation precedes me. Yeah.” He said. “Let me guess, you either heard that I am just too handsome, or—”

“I figured it out myself.” Carolina deadpanned, trying to think fast for something that she knew she could use as an out. “Since you asked whether I was one of Locus’ or Control’s.” 

Felix rolled his eyes. “God, I hate that you’re right.” He blinked though, his expression smoothing to relaxation far too quickly. “Carolina, then. I guess it’ll be up to me to assess you. I mean, it’s technically too late for me to turn you away but I’m sure you don’t want to find out what happens to the rejects. Because let me tell you, it isn’t pretty.” 

_ That's code for we shoot them in a ditch. _ Epsilon practically shouted in the back of Carolina’s mind like a second conscience. 

Carolina didn’t really _ need _ the extra motivation to get accepted into the Merc’s ranks, but there it was. And something about just how sleazy Felix seemed to be put her on edge about it, since there was something that was just a little bit off about the way that he said the words. 

“Consider that noted.” Carolina said, holding her head high and looking Felix in the eyes. He grinned, sly and easy and too comfortable with everything. “_ Sir _.” 

Felix cocked his head to the side, almost like he was trying to look at her differently. Even despite how relaxed Felix seemed to be, Carolina couldn’t help the feeling that she was being picked apart under the microscope and dissected. She could almost imagine Felix pulling her limbs apart like a curious child plucked the legs off of flies as he tried to figure them out. 

It passed. Felix looked over at Darnoldson. “Keep an eye on the new girl, show her the ropes, would you? I’d hate to throw her out. This one might actually be decent.” 

“Yes, sir.” Darnoldson replied, too quiet for Carolina’s liking. 

A loud alarm went off and the entire table nearly jumped. Felix rolled his eyes and checked his watch. “Shit,” he muttered. “I’ll get back to you guys later. Just get your shit together.” 

With that Felix left, his tray abandoned at the table. 

“Is he always like that?” Carolina asked McTavish.

McTavish jabbed his fork into his protein block and shoved what came off into his mouth. “Pretty much.” He said. “Usually he’s stabbier.” 

And yeah, that wasn’t very comforting. 

* * *

Later that evening Carolina sat at the desk in her room which was hers, with her armor partially dismantled as she did her best to tune some of the sizing to be more appropriate for herself. 

She tried not to think about the woman that the armor had belonged to too much. 

She wished that she was able to use her own armor. Something that was bespoke and didn’t carry the baggage of another person’s life along with it. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. Her own armor was too recognizable as having belonged to the Reds and Blues. 

There was some work being done toward the purpose of scrubbing all trace of who the armor had belonged to before, but it was a long time coming. She had to get the armor measurements back down to her own size first. 

And she wasn’t nearly well trained enough to make that happen. General armor upkeep was one thing, re-fitting was specialized work that took a trained eye. 

Epsilon popped up in front of her helmet where it sat on the desk beside her. 

“Hey.” He greeted her. “So, I looked over the recording from lunch.” He started, before Carolina even got a chance to say anything to him. 

Carolina set down the tiny screwdriver in front of her, sure not to take the tips of her fingers off of the handle just in case she ended up losing it. “What is it?” She asked. 

“It was pretty weird that Felix ran off like that so I figured I’d try to figure that out,” Epsilon explained, and Carolina realized then that it was possible that he was about to explain where he’d been all day. “So you know that there are security cameras all over the fucking place. Well, whoever put them up was probably worried about getting infiltrated. They aren’t in the barracks as much as they are in the communal areas—”

“Get to the point, Epsilon.” 

“Locus showed up at the same time that Felix went missing.” Epsilon finally said. “Looks like he and Felix had a rendezvous planned and Felix was trying to kill time before their meeting.” 

Carolina frowned at Epsilon’s choice of words. “_ Rendezvous _. Why do you have to say it like that?”

Epsilon laughed. “Apparently you don’t keep up with the rumor mill.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Carolina stared at Epsilon’s avatar and saw him blink to Theta purple for just a second before returning to his usual shade of blue. Like he was embarrassed by the fact that she knew that he was listening in on some weird stuff. 

He shifted back and forth, like he was trying to look at his own feet. “Eh, don’t worry about it.” He said. “Point is, Locus and Felix came here to meet. I tried to find a way to listen in, but their personal systems are locked up tight. Couldn’t get shit.” 

And that was pretty damn disappointing, honestly. 

Carolina sighed. “Do you want to try and get in with physical drives?”

Epsilon flickered again, Delta green and then back to blue. “Bad idea.” He explained. “Strong firewalls by the looks of things. Whatever they’re up to, they’re keeping things as secure as possible. I’m not risking getting deleted, thanks. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be able to stick around for as long as I can.” 

Considering that it was mostly a miracle that Epsilon _ hadn’t _been deleted yet, Carolina didn’t quite know what to say to her AI partner. Mostly it just sounded like their best chance at getting a lead was one that wasn’t going to work out in either of their favor for a while. 

Not unless she managed to get close enough to Locus or Felix that she could get that information from them firsthand. 

It wasn’t a possibility that she wanted to rule out entirely just yet, but if she could avoid it she would. 

“So what’s our next move?” Carolina asked Epsilon. “Try to follow them or hope our squad gets taken out with one of them?” She picked up the screwdriver again and got to work on micro-adjusting the fit of the gauntlet in front of her again. “Because that's not happening until Coyote gets back.” 

She shook her head, dissatisfied with the whole situation on the whole. “Were you able to dig up anything on Locus or Felix while you were at it?” She asked. “You got a look at Felix’s face.” 

Epsilon let out a squawk of indignation. “Well, I tried!” He told her. “You know, I wasn’t exactly programmed with facial recognition in mind! And even if I was, I don’t have access to UNSC databases. Pretty sure that The Director programmed us specifically so we _ couldn’t _ get at that stuff so he was less likely to get caught for the whole war crimes thing.” 

Both of them went dead silent, if only for a moment. The Director was always a sore subject. 

Carolina hadn’t known about the lack of access to UNSC information. 

Lack of facial recognition seemed particularly targeted.

A sick, hateful, angry part of her already had a theory on _ why _that was.

If Alpha and his fragments couldn’t access UNSC files, her mother’s face would only ever be an instrument of torture. 

It made Carolina’s blood _ boil _ at the thought. 

Epsilon flashed to Omega purple, apparently getting the same shot of rage that she was feeling. It lasted longer than the Theta purple or the Delta green had, like Epsilon was having a harder time trying to press the anger back down himself. 

“Got it.” Carolina muttered. “And I’m guessing police records are out?”

“Way out of range.” Epsilon said, the blue returning. “Assuming that there’s even a criminal record for either of these guys.”

And he had a point. Known criminals wouldn’t get hired to do whatever it was that that Locus and Felix were doing. The whole situation seemed so difficult and fragile that someone that had gotten caught before could never even begin to get considered for it. 

Carolina hesitated. “Do you know if either of them are still here?”

Epsilon flashed out of sight, and Carolina was left alone for a few minutes before he returned. She managed to get at least the one gauntlet to the right size for herself. There was no chance that it would slip as long as it was mounted properly. 

Not that gauntlet fit would actually make up for the undersuit being a little too large. 

“Looks like Locus has a squad getting ready to head out.” Epsilon said, resting on top of Carolina’s helmet. “Felix is still on base. No squad prepared though.” 

“How’d you get that?”

Epsilon shrugged. “Just got the perimeter cameras.” He said. “They’ll probably be gone in thirty minutes. Seems covert, showing up to watch in person would raise red flags. Nothing was happening though other than people suiting up and choosing weapons. Nobody was even talking.” 

And _ that _ was weird. 

“Don’t try to tag along in anyone’s helmets.” Carolina decided right then and there. “If we’re doing this, I need you here with me. We can figure out what we’re doing as we go together.” 

Epsilon let out a little laugh, almost bitter sounding. “I wasn’t going to leave you alone, C.” He said. “I know you can handle yourself, but you’re my sister and I’d rather we stick together for this.”

A strange warmth blossomed in Carolina’s chest. 

“Thanks, Epsilon.” She whispered. 

He flashed over on top of the gauntlet. “Some of the wiring in this is faulty, by the way. Might want to check on it. You know, _ before _you can’t move your fingers or something.” 

And god, if that wasn’t the absolute _ last _thing that Carolina wanted to hear. 

Fixing her armor was going to be a longer process than she’d thought, it seemed. 

She wasn’t thrilled about it. 


	3. Canines

Over the next day and a half, Carolina only saw Felix a few more times, but it was never for more than a few seconds. He was always busy with some other new recruit, or doing_something _with one of the other squads. Although Carolina was pretty sure she'd caught him just talking trash with one of the squad leaders at one point. With the amount that he was up to, it left Carolina wondering whether or not she was high on his list of priorities or not, since it felt like things were getting dragged out. 

Ever since meeting him in the mess hall, Carolina couldn’t help but feel like she was being toyed with. 

She didn’t like it.

And yet, when it came to Felix, it seemed to make sense that he would toy with her like he was. 

“Carolina!” McTavish shouted at her from outside of the barrack, standing just far enough away that she’d be able to see him if she went to the window and looked outside. “Coyote’s here!”

His announcement _immediately _set off alarms in Carolina’s head since there was no way that didn’t mean strange things for her later on to have to deal with. The biggest thing was that she'd have to work a lot harder at hiding Epsilon once she started sharing the space with someone else. Not to mention _everything _else that she was working on there. 

Not having the roommate around had left her with the privacy needed to actually do her job. 

With that gone, Carolina wasn’t entirely sure how she’d be able to fill the need for privacy.

But she also knew absolutely _nothing _about Coyote and _that _had her worried. Especially since it seemed like Coyote had some actual standing among the men at Outpost Echo. Felix seemed to think she was relevant enough to… kind of know her name. Darnoldson and McTavish both spoke highly of her. 

Carolina needed to give a good impression, that much was clear.

“I’ll be right out!” Carolina called back to her squad mate. She didn’t have her armor on just yet, but she was fast enough at putting it on that it would be a few minutes at most before she went out to meet with her teammates. To finally meet the final member of her squad. 

The woman that she was _supposed _to be sharing a living space with. 

A woman that she’d have to play nice with and become friends with, and then ultimately betray. Just the same as she would to Darnoldson and McTavish. Possibly even to Locus or Felix, depending on how well her infiltration went in the long term.

Carolina stepped back and began to pull the bits of her armor on one by one, and once she was ready she went out to see that there was a Pelican parked in the middle of the camp like there had been on the day that she’d arrived. The exact same Pelican, Epsilon informed her following a quick scan for serial numbers on the hull.

Darnoldson and McTavish were already there in front of the ship, gathered round with a third person while others just milled about as they minded their own business. If the slight bobbing of Darnoldson’s head was any indicator, the three of them were already deep in some sort of conversation. 

_Epsilon, _Carolina thought to her AI partner in the hopes that he could do something to help her out. _Are you going to record this?_

_I’m planning on it, _Epsilon replied in her head. It almost sounded like there was a little bit of an echo in Carolina’s head. Having an AI in there was _always _disorienting, but Epsilon was a thousand times more pleasant to have implanted than his siblings were. Carolina was even used to having him there enough that usually he didn’t bother her at all.

_Good _, Carolina thought, even though she didn’t feel at all relieved by it. Instead she just felt uncomfortable and uneasy. 

She drew in close to her team. 

McTavish noticed her first and raised an arm to wave it above his head to signal Carolina over. 

She made her way over, careful to scan the crowd to check whether or not Felix was there or not. All she needed to do was spot his orange among them and she’d know. 

But Carolina _didn’t _find Felix. In fact, it seemed like he was gone without a single trace left behind. 

Either that or he was hiding out somewhere in the hopes of being incredibly difficult later. 

Carolina wasn’t too fond of either idea, in truth.

“Uh, Coyote—” Darnoldson began to speak, sounding at least a little bit like he was in a panic of sorts over how he was supposed to introduce her. The impression that Carolina got of Darnoldson was that he was somewhat intimidated by Coyote. McTavish too, possibly, but he was so nonchalant that Carolina could never _really _figure out what was going on in his head. 

A part of her thought that McTavish was just a kid in over his head. 

The severity of the situation on Chorus said otherwise, though. Kids didn’t end up over their heads in a warzone like Chorus’. 

Kids didn’t get drafted into whatever was happening there.

And yet, they were.

Coyote looked up though, her Strider helm lifting as she focused in on Carolina. The woman stood up straight, and Carolina was struck by just how small she was. If Carolina had to guess, Coyote couldn’t have been any taller than five foot, three inches. 

The only other woman that Carolina could remember ever seeing on the battlefield that was that small had been CT, and that had been because CT had—

Well, CT was _always _something else. 

Carolina missed her. 

She could never forgive herself for CT.

“Hey.” Coyote greeted her though, relaxed and calm and not giving a single damn about whatever it was that Darnoldson was about to say. Presumably it would have been an introduction, but he deflated the second that Coyote spoke up.

“Hi.” Carolina said back, because she didn’t know what else there was to say. “I’ve… heard a lot about you.” 

Coyote cocked her head ot the side and looked back over her shoulder at McTavish and Darnoldson both. “Good things?”

“Mostly.” Carolina chuckled, feeling herself relax a little bit. All the while, Epsilon was hard at work if the number of popups that were appearing on her HUD were any indication. “Either way, good to finally meet you.” 

“Likewise, I guess. You don’t snore, right?” Coyote asked, letting herself lean back against the Pelican. “I started doing the away missions because Ehler’s _always _snored. Couldn’t fucking stand it.” 

“Not to my knowledge.” Carolina said, a little slowly because she felt like she needed a moment to even begin to comprehend what she'd just heard. “I’ll try to stay out of your way.” 

“Sounds good to me.” Coyote said with a shrug. “It’s Carolina, right?”

So Darnoldson and McTavish had actually bothered to try and talk about her, then. That was certainly interesting. “Yeah.” She said with a shrug. 

Coyote nodded along. “Good.” 

* * *

Aside from Coyote’s arrival at Outpost Echo, Carolina’s day turned out to be surprisingly uneventful.

The amount of sheer waiting that had to be done before _any action could be taken whatsoever _was starting to drive Carolina up a wall. She'd been hoping that by joining on with the space pirates she could have made some _progress. _

All that she’d gotten was Felix being a dick to her for no reason, but also judging by the way that well, _everyone _acted around Felix, that might have just been his personality. 

Or maybe it was reputation.

His reputation was, if nothing else, a well earned one. Carolina realized this fact when Felix came knocking down the door to Barrack Delta at eleven at night because he had things that he wanted to do. Specifically things that he wanted to do with the squad that she was on, probably because she was there and Coyote had finally gotten back. He’d mentioned wanting to know when Coyote was back days before. 

It was possible he was just looking for a follow up on that statement.

“Everyone up!” Felix shouted from outside, not even bothering to pretend like he needed to be stealthy. If the entire Outpost woke up, they couldn’t exactly report him or anything seeing as he was the one in charge around there. “We don’t have all night, so you four better get your shit together and be out here in ten. Armed and ready, don’t waste my fucking time.” 

Carolina jumped at the sudden noise. On the other hand, Coyote had more or less rolled straight out of her bunk and stretched as she began to slip into her armor. Like this was a routine that she’d been through a thousand times before. 

And odds were, that was exactly the case.

_I can’t find anything on this chick, _Epsilon told Carolina as she too began to suit up. _Just so you know. So I can’t promise you that you won’t get axe murdered in your sleep or something. Since I can’t figure out what she's about and all of that._

Realistically, axe murder was low on the list of things Carolina was worried about. 

Besides, Coyote didn’t quite strike her as the type for it. Felix though? Possibly. Locus? She would put money on it. 

Carolina glanced back over her shoulder at her new roommate. “Please tell me this is normal?”

Coyote shrugged. “When the Mercs tell us to jump, we jump.” She said all too easily. “You’ll get used to it. Everyone runs weird hours here. Surprised this hasn’t happened to you yet, McCallister.” 

Carolina nodded along, but she couldn’t exactly pretend like she felt any more sure of herself. Being dragged out of their bunks for some unnamed objective had been normal back in Project Freelancer too, but that hadn’t been a good thing there either. Being dragged out of bunks at odd hours had usually meant that they were all about to be thrown into _some _sort of legally dubious at best situation, in hindsight.

Dealing with it again just made her worry. 

The two of them dressed in relative silence, and Carolina was actually the first one out the door before she was joined quickly by Coyote and Darnoldson, with McTavish straying behind. Most likely because he just couldn’t be bothered to give a damn about anything they were doing. In fact, before he got his helmet on, Carolina noticed that he looked like he wanted _nothing _more than a chance to go to bed.

Felix was out there, already in armor and seemingly very invested in something on his datapad. 

“You guys ready?” He asked, eyeing Carolina and the rifle that she had slung over her back. 

“Yeah.” Coyote said, taking the lead before Darnoldson could even get the chance to. She began to walk toward what Carolina had quickly learned to be the vehicle bay. “Let me guess, I’m driving?”

Felix fell into step beside her. Epsilon dragged up the file that he’d created his proposed chain of command in and adjusted it so that Coyote ranked higher than Darnoldson. 

For the first time Epsilon’s speculation started to feel at least _somewhat _accurate. 

“You sure are.” Felix replied. “Once we’re going I’ll explain what’s going on.” 

“Is it a hit and run?” Darnoldson asked, hurrying to fall into place just behind Felix. It didn’t have the same effect as it had when Coyote did it.

“Nah.” Felix said, too easily and too nonchalantly. “I just had a _very _interesting conversation with Kimball though. Apparently the Feds did a strike on a New Republic base. I’m going there to check it out. Had a chance to swing by for backup on the way.” 

_What the fuck, _Epsilon asked. _That doesn’t make any fucking sense. _He turned on the recording software in Carolina’s helmet once more. Carolina sincerely hoped that he didn’t let it drop for so much as a second before things got weird. They needed to have every single thing documented that they could. Especially since she had a feeling that she was going to _need _to be able to re-evaluate the moment later on down the line. 

Carolina kept her mouth shut and simply listened. Any piece of information was valuable. 

McTavish spoke up. “So we’re racing the Feds and News there?” He asked, stretching his arms out. “And Locus?”

“More or less.” Felix said as the five of them turned into the vehicle bay. Coyote made her way over to a wall where a number of nails had been installed, pairs of keys hanging from each and every one of them. She chose a particular set of keys and palmed them before heading over to the various warthogs and choosing the correct one.

Felix didn’t bother to do the same, just approached a Mongoose that was sitting off to the side. His vehicle, if Carolina had to guess. 

_Do you think it’d be possible to set up a tracker on that?, _Carolina thought the question for Epsilon to hear. 

_Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been in one of those things, _Epsilon said a little too nonchalantly. Carolina even _knew _the incident that he was referring to. It was one which irritated the hell out of her even years down the line. 

But Epsilon had a point. 

_Wei’ll figure it out, _Carolina thought. _But if we can find a way to keep an eye on his or Locus' movements we should._

_Sure thing, C. _There was another little tweak of the muscles in Carolina’s shoulder, Epsilon trying to be comforting by playing at the nerves there. 

It was the closest he could get to putting a hand on her shoulder, Carolina realized later. 

Coyote started the warthog and turned herself to look at the rest of them. 

“Darnoldson, McTavish, you’re in back.” She commanded. “McCallister, you’re at shotgun.”

And _that _was a very weird thing, Carolina thought. Weird enough that she couldn’t help but wonder whether or not she was being thrown a bone for the fact that she was supposedly ‘proving herself’ on that mission. 

She didn’t say anything to fight it, only climbed into the seat that she’d been assigned, pulled her rifle off of her back, and waited. 

Felix had pulled up just in front of the garage and was waiting. He sat up straight and shouted over the sounds of both the Warthog’s and his own Mongoose’s engines. 

“I want you all on Frequency 57-Beta.” He announced to them. “Briefing is while we’re on our way, got it?”

Epsilon went straight to work on tuning her into the correct radio frequency. He let out a little noise in Carolina’s head which felt like it was supposed to be his equivalent of a whistle. They were going to be speaking on a secured channel, then. Probably an impressively-well secured channel, if Carolina had to guess based on Epsilon’s reaction to it.

Carolina supposed that was a good thing. 

_I’ll be recording, _Epsilon promised her. _Just so you know._

It was a small comfort. 

“Everyone on?” Felix’s voice came in over the radio. “Confirm.” 

“Coyote, confirming.” Coyote’s voice came first. 

“Darnoldson, confirming.” Darnoldson said. “Even though _that’s not my name _.” 

“Don’t care, Darnoldson.” Felix scoffed. 

“McTavish, confirming.” 

And that left her. “McCallister, confirming.” Carolina mimicked what the rest of her teammates had done in the hopes that there wasn’t something that she'd missed. 

But Felix seemed to relax and settled into the correct position to ride in. “Good.” He said over the frequency. “I’m leading. Stay close and cut engines if I tell you to. Don’t give me a reason to kill you guys.” 

“Got it.” Coyote said, revving the Warthog’s motor in the process. 

Felix peeled out of the camp with a vengeance. Coyote didn’t waste any time doing what she could to keep up with him. Their vehicle ended up a respectable distance away from Felix, who waited until they were roughly two minutes away from camp before he started the briefing. 

“So here’s what’s going on—” Felix said easily, not bothering to look back at their Warthog to check that they were still there. The whole thing felt so practiced and routine that Carolina’s stomach churned. Even without knowing what they were really doing, she had a feeling that it wasn’t any good. “Earlier today Locus was with the Feds, went in and wiped out a New Republic base. Took a squad with him from Outpost Charlie, I think, and made sure nobody made it out alive by leaving them to clean up after.” 

Felix took a sharp turn. “Kimball was pretty pissed, wanted me to go and check it out since I’m already out on assignment. So what we’re doing is we’re going there, you guys are raiding the camp for supplies. I return back to the New Republic with the news that the Feds already cleared out whatever supplies got left behind there. Got it?”

_Holy shit, _Epsilon commented, _They’re starving the armies out. This is so fucked up._

Carolina didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know that there was anything that she _could _say. 

The biggest problem with her plan to infiltrate was coming to light, front and center and impossible to avoid. 

To infiltrate and be convincing about it, she had to _participate._

She had to be able to make it look like she was there for the same reasons as every other space pirate. She had to learn how to turn off her morality _again _and hope that it didn’t hurt as bad this time around. 

Stealing food and killing people directly were of course two different things, but the weight was there for both. 

In a way, starving people out was _crueler _than killing them outright was. It dragged out the process in ways that it didn’t need to be. It made it worse. 

Who the fuck had decided that siege tactics could apply to _every _situation?

She bit her tongue and just allowed herself to go along for the ride, suddenly all too aware of the reasons why Felix would choose to take a full squad out with him for it, why they’d take a Warthog while he rode alone, why there was _a fucking stack of milk crates _in the back of the Warthog. 

It was so fucked up. 

Once the war on Chorus was over with, Carolina swore to herself, she was never going to do something so deliberately cruel again. 

_C, _Epsilon spoke up in her mind, quiet and restrained about it. _I don’t like it either. Nobody else has to know once this is done._

And yeah, that was a comfort of a sort. Nobody needed to know. 

It was something where Carolina didn’t even know that Wash would get it. 

Felix went on with his briefing apparently oblivious to Carolina’s concern. “From what Locs told me the place is pretty fucked up. And I doubt that the News have bothered to send out people to recover any bodies, so that’ll be a whole thing. But hey, bright side, you see any armor pieces you like, they’re yours. Provided they haven’t been perforated or anything like that. Locs didn’t exactly give a full damage report in the four minutes he felt like talking for.”

Nobody said anything, but when Carolina glanced back over her shoulder at McTavish and Darnoldson, she saw McTavish perk up slightly. 

She couldn’t help but wonder whether or not he was technically in the market for a helmet that wasn’t the same sort that just got handed out to every idiot off the street. She’d only gotten lucky because she’d started off by looting someone else’s armor. 

And she _still _felt guilty about that. 

The idea of doing it again made her stomach churn. 

“Either way,” Felix said. “Sounded like Locs ran his operation as a hit and run so everything expensive is already probably blasted to bits. There’s nothing valuable that we’d get off of those computers that we don’t have already anyways. If you see something still on though, make sure to break it. Anything useful you see, take. This place needs to be completely fucking useless by the time we’re done with it, got it?”

There was nothing more than a few murmurs of agreement. Murmurs which Carolina forced herself into going along with. 

Felix turned off onto what looked like a better worn-in road. “Good.” He said, apparently satisfied with what he’d heard. “I’m sure you guys can use your judgment and decide what’s good and what’s not. Just don’t waste grenades and bombs, that shit doesn’t come out of nowhere.” 

“On the contrary,” Coyote spoke up, almost too lightly. “I know exactly where it comes from.” 

In that second, the gears clicked together in Carolina’s head with regard to just what Coyote did. 

She was a supply runner. Ranked highly but away too often to be made a squad leader. 

It was so obvious in hindsight. 

Felix laughed, and went quieter as he drove on ahead. 

After a while, everyone else was completely silent as well.

* * *

Their destination was more or less just what Carolina would have expected out of a camp which had just been raided, destroyed, and everyone that had resided there decimated. 

In a way, it was a good thing that she’d gotten used to seeing bodies back in Project Freelancer. Otherwise, she wasn’t entirely sure that she would have been able to stomach what had been waiting for them in the destroyed camp.

Coyote had parked the Warthog just outside of the camp. Darnoldson and McTavish had gone off to two of the smaller buildings to try and do sweeps of the interiors. Their respective milk crates were left at the doors so that they could collect whatever they needed. Carolina had taken a crate of her own and headed for a nondescript building. Whatever labels had been on the building had seemingly gotten burned off during the attack.

She’d only been inside alone for about thirty seconds before she found someone in armor, dead and slumped over a table where it looked like they’d been enjoying a late meal. 

A  _ very _ quick glance around her surroundings told Carolina that it was a barrack of some sort. Two sets of bunk beds were pressed up against the wall. At least one of them had odd lumps in it, so Carolina could only guess that whoever had been sleeping there had been shot in their sleep. Probably execution style. 

The bullet holes in the walls told a different story. 

Someone had just come in and sprayed the room. When they searched through, the shooter had simply made sure to finish the job.

Carolina didn’t do anything to move either of the two bodies. In fact, she didn’t want to get close to either of them to begin with. If she kept her distance, it would give her less to chew on later on when she inevitably over analyzed the mission.

She checked back over her shoulder just to be certain that the door was indeed closed and locked. 

Epsilon realized what she was checking for and took the cue to let himself show. 

“Yeah, so I hate this too.” Epsilon said, hovering by Carolina’s shoulder. He kept his volume as far down as he could manage, almost entirely limited to just the inside of Carolina’s helmet so that only she could ever hear him. His blue avatar cast off a nearly comforting glow onto the room. “Just for the record.” 

“I know.” Carolina whispered back, her eyes falling on a locker. “I just don’t like that we have to play along with it.”

“We?” Epslion asked. “I mean, this is  _ mostly  _ all you.” 

“I know.” Carolina sighed as she began to try the various lockers to try and see whether or not any of them had been unlocked. One came open without any trouble, so Carolina tried to get a peek inside. 

The first thing that she found was a box of what had once been snack cakes, but had been turned into a box of shotgun rounds and assorted stray ammo.

The person that the locker had belonged to had probably started using the box just because it was all that they had left that worked. Carolina’s stomach clenched as she resigned the little box of ammunition to the milk crate, to be taken and added to the space pirate’s supply. Assuming that they had  _ anything _ that could even use what the soldier had been hoarding in the first place.

The rest of the locker didn’t yield anything of use. Carolina didn’t bother with ratty t-shirts or spare pairs of underwear. She  _ did _ however take a pair of relatively unworn socks though, just because she had a feeling that good socks were probably hard to come by on Chorus. 

She tried the next locker, and when the door didn’t immediately open, she decided to smash it open with the butt of her rifle. 

“So you’ve got a plan for what we do next, right?” Epsilon asked. “I mean, once you’re on the merc’s good side. Because you know that it’s just getting worse from here. Especially once you get on their good sides.” 

And god, he was  _ right _ and Carolina hated it so much.

Why did Epsilon have to be  _ right? _

What would working close with the mercs even entail? 

“I don’t know yet.” Carolina said. “Right now I don’t even know who they’re working for.” 

“Yeah. Sure would help if those assholes were a lot worse at covering their tracks.” Epsilon sounded resigned, “The not knowing who they—“ He cut himself off and flashed out of sight as the door behind Carolina opened. 

Felix stepped into the building to join her. 

“Hey, new girl.” He said as he leaned against the door frame. Arrogant. Cocky. Teasing. “Talking to yourself?”

_ Shit _ .

“Sorry.” Carolina said. “Bad habit.” She turned back toward him. “Is something wrong?”

“Nah,” Felix said with a shrug, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn’t bother doing anything to try and help her out. “Figured I’d just see how you were doing. Baby’s first mission and all of that. I know it all can be  _ very _ intimidating.”

Her blood boiled at the suggestion. 

A strong, very loud,  _ very  _ vocal part of Carolina  _ genuinely _ looked forward to getting to fight Felix at some point, if only to make him shut up and realize just what she was capable of. Maybe if his teeth got caved in it would have knocked him down a few pegs.

Being underestimated pissed her the fuck off.

It  _ always  _ had, even back before the PFL leaderboard had become an issue in the first place. 

Carolina shrugged. “I can’t say it’s like anything I’ve ever done before.” She paused. “This mission, I mean.”

“Yeah, you’ll be glad we did it.” Felix said. “Your little roommate there, she can’t exactly go out shopping every day. If you see something that you want, you’re honestly better off just taking it and hiding it before someone else can do it first.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow behind her helmet at the suggestion. “And you don’t take things you want?”

“I’m one of the ones in charge of this little operation, in case you forgot.” Felix said with a shrug, almost like he was rolling his eyes. “I get first fucking dibs on  _ everything,  _ new girl.”

“Even over Locus?” Might as well take whatever information she could get out of Felix.

“Yeah.” Felix snorted, like that was the single most amusing thing that he’d ever heard. “But that’s mostly because that asshole is only interested in weapons and armor. No appreciation for the finer things in life. All work and no play makes Locus a  _ very _ dull boy.”

_ Interesting, _ Epsilon commented.  _ I guess that makes sense for the guy that’s obsessed with orders, right? _

And it  _ did _ make sense, but Carolina couldn’t help but feel like Felix was either giving a rather reductionist point of view. There was probably more to it. There  _ had _ to be.

Carolina pried open the second locker, only to find someone’s dirty clothes shoved into the bottom of it. She was sure that they smelled terrible, but her helmet did a good enough job of filtering the scent out. Unsatisfied, she pushed the locker closed and moved onto the third one. 

“So you’re just hoping to find anything for yourself here?”

“What?” Felix scoffed. “Come on, I  _ am _ here for work. It’s like I said, we’re depriving the two armies of whatever resources we can. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t allowed to line our pockets while we’re at it.” 

Carolina made a mental note to figure out how she felt about stealing from the dead, since it was probably the first of many things that she’d need to come to terms with her own feelings on if she was supposed to survive there with the space pirates. Since everything they ever did was probably going to be downright unethical at best. 

_ You’ve done unethical, _ Carolina reminded herself.  _ Why does this feel worse? _

And she didn’t have an answer for it. Maybe she never would. 

She needed to put a little more work into getting the third locker open, since it had a weathered lock on it, the dial scratched so bad that the numbers had mostly worn off of it completely. Whoever had owned it must have known the damn thing by heart. Once York had shown her the trick to breaking one of them, but Carolina hadn’t picked up the skill as quickly as she would have liked. She also, frankly, didn’t have the time to go trying. 

“Sorry.” Carolina said as she drew her pistol. The weight was comforting in her hand. She leveled it on the lock and took a half-step back, just enough so that she wouldn’t have to fear a ricochet. Felix got the message and did the same. He decided to lean up against the bed behind Carolina, almost over her shoulder. 

A corpse rotted behind him, just over his own shoulders.

There was no way that he was standing there to check her aim. 

Carolina envisioned Felix’s face as the lock and fired. 

It splintered apart and fell to the ground, a ruined chunk of metal that was only  _ slightly _ melted. 

Felix let out a low whistle, like it had impressed him, but Carolina ignored it. He was patronizing her, she was sure of it. 

She pressed forward and pulled the remaining chunk of metal off of the locker door and dropped it to the ground before she pulled the locker open. Behind her, Felix slunk away from the bed and put himself into her space as she began to search the locker. 

“So.” Felix said, reaching in and grabbing out a packet of cigarettes for himself when he saw it inside. “You’ve done that before. Break into a lot of buildings, new girl?”

“Something like that.” Carolina said, frowning as she rifled through the mess on the locker's top shelf. Aside from the pack of cigarettes, she found a notebook. When she opened it only appeared to be someone's diary. Carolina flipped through in search of any codes or information that Felix would  _ need _ to see looted. 

Felix snatched it out of her hands and turned it over, almost like he was bored. “Yeah, this is useless.” He muttered before tossing it back into the locker. “The kids never get anything useful. Maybe you could use it as fire starter. Not sure why you would, though. Real fire starter would do a better job than a shitty old journal.” 

And god,  _ that  _ didn’t feel good to hear at all. 

Carolina did what she could to ignore Felix and searched the rest of the locker. Nothing of any use turned up, since all there was looked like a few personal items. 

“God, if that asshole already had this place raided—” Felix muttered under his breath. “Its possible this base either had nothing to begin with, or Locus already had this dump raided. Wouldn’t be the first time that asshole pulled this sort of shit without mentioning it to anyone. Fucking prick.”

He clapped her on the shoulder, and Carolina nearly  _ bristled _ at the contact. “Well, search the rest of the dump. I won’t blame you when you don’t find shit, new girl. Pretty shitty job to have to do a first mission on. But you know what—” He cocked his head to the side like a new idea had just struck him. 

A bang sounded outside, and Felix whipped his head back to look over at what could have been the source of the noise. Whatever it was that Felix had been about to talk about it had been forgotten, so Carolina decided to simply finish out the rest of the search as he stormed out to try and figure out what the hell was going on.

All that she found was a second small case of bullets that had been stashed under one of the beds, and then a couple of what she had to  _ guess _ were pre-war field manuals. The bathroom in the barrack garnered no results, so Carolina just decided to ignore it. When she went out, she found that the others were also finishing up at more or less the same time. 

She had the least in her milk crate by far, but she also hadn’t gone picking the sheets off of beds, or pieces of armor, or anything else like that. 

Whether or not it was normal to take the least on your first raid, Carolina couldn’t be too sure of. 

Felix instructed them to do one last sweep of the base, which took only a short time. 

The jackpot came when McTavish nearly tripped as he was walking behind the center bunker. 

“Hey!” He shouted to the rest of them. “I’ve got something!” 

With that, there was a rush of the remaining four of them to get to where McTavish was. 

Sure enough there  _ was _ something. It was buried in the dirt, but not so completely that whatever was inside could get ruined. Felix walked up to it, knelt down, and rapped his knuckles against the top of it. He hummed in interest. “Well, that actually seems like it might be something.” He said before stepping back. “Haul it up.”

There was no question about whether or not they’d do it or not. Carolina stepped into place with her three squad mates and they went to work uncovering the crate and then once they were sure that enough room had been crated, it was a four man effort to pull it above ground. Felix stood back and simply watched, completely disinterested in helping out. 

Of course, the chain of command dictated that he didn’t necessarily have to help. It still would have been nice if he had.

Once it was all the way out though, Felix approached and pulled a knife. He knelt into place, pried the crate open, and pushed the lid open so that they could all see what was inside. 

“Well, there it is.” Felix said as he moved a piece of tarp aside. “We’re done here.” He stood up straight and glanced over at McTavish. “If I didn’t know this was completely an accident, I would have almost commended you.”

McTavish gave a noncommittal shrug in response. He was probably used enough to Felix that he wouldn’t take whatever bait Felix dangled in front of him.

Carolina peeked inside. 

_ Holy shit,  _ Epsilon commented.  _ How many guns do you think that is. _

She didn’t know, but it certainly explained the weight of the crate.

Carolina didn’t get a chance to answer before Coyote was directing them to close the crate again. She walked over to the Warthog and backed it into place so that they wouldn’t have too much of a distance to go in order to load the crate into it. 

Getting it into the Warthog took some effort, but once they were done all of them began to load in. 

Carolina was about to climb into the Warthog when she felt something grab her by the shoulder, holding her back. The body suit that she wore shifted slightly, another reminder that it wasn’t a perfect fit for her. 

“New girl can ride back with me,” Felix said. “She and I should probably chat and get to know each other. Looks like you guys could use the room with the crate anyways.”

Coyote eyed Felix and cocked her head ot the side, almost like she was doing her best to size him up and figure out just what was going on in his head. Felix offered no explanations, only grinned wide since he seemed to think that he’d gotten whatever he wanted out of the whole situation. Carolina was sure that he was confident on that point. 

Shattering it seemed to be a bad idea. 

But, Carolina thought, if she rode with Felix it  _ did  _ put her and Epsilon close enough that Epsilon could potentially slide into Felix’s gear and start getting to the bottom of who he was and what his  _ actual  _ orders were. Epsilon claimed that there were firewalls, but it was possible that getting some extra time to try and find workarounds was going to be just what he needed. 

Carolina went to Felix obediently and climbed onto the back of the Mongoose, while Felix got into place at the front. 

He gave her a look, the kind where she could just  _ imagine _ the sort of shit-eating grin that he wore behind his helmet. 

Carolina rolled her eyes and got comfortable for the ride ahead. 

Felix kicked the Mongoose into gear and led the trek back to Outpost Echo, leaving her just enough time to dismount before speeding off back to the New Republic to play along like he was reporting back as normal. 

_ Hey, if it makes you feel any better, _ Epsilon said in her mind, in what Carolina could only describe as a weak attempt to comfort.  _ I might have gotten something. _

And that was something, at the very least. 

Not much, but something.


	4. Equipment Upkeep

Carolina had been on the back of Felix’s Mongoose for all of thirty seconds before she was ordered to move over to a different secured channel. Carolina had rolled her eyes, but had switched to channel 72-U without much argument otherwise, if only because she _ really _ didn’t want to have to deal with it all that much.

If Felix wanted the two of them to talk, they’d talk. Carolina just couldn’t help that feeling like the secured line was a bit _ much. _

Once they were both on the line, Felix started the Mongoose and they started the drive back to Outpost Echo. 

After the mission, Carolina didn’t know what she actually could have said to Felix that would have made her feel any better about things. What was there to even talk about? They were starving out the people of Chorus on top of everything else that they were doing. 

And yet she was expected to _ play nice _ when it came to Felix.

“So,” Felix said, his voice crackling through her helmet radio. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself, new girl. Where’d Control find you, since you’re apparently one of theirs?”

“Bounty hunting.” Carolina answered quickly. It was a field that just about _ everyone _at Outpost Echo had probably been recruited out of. Most of the Freelancers that she'd known had ended up in that field in one way or another, to Carolina’s knowledge. “I needed the money and this was more steady work than what I would have gotten otherwise.” 

Felix let out a barking sort of laugh. “Yeah, that seems to be pretty much the fucking norm around here. I’ve been there and I’ll be honest. I had fun, but the irregular paychecks could eat my ass.” 

“Did you?”

_ Recording! _ Epsilon exclaimed in the back of her mind in the second that the red recording icon appeared on Carolina’s HUD. It was oddly comforting being able to see it there, blinking away as it was supposed to in the corner of her HUD. At least she’d be able to parse the conversation from ride later on down the line. That was when she’d be able to really unpack it.

“Well, yeah, I mean.” Felix scoffed. “End up in the right places and the work never fucking stops, if you get lucky. And picking good… partner, goes a long way.” His head dipped just a little bit as he focused on the road ahead of him. His tone was surprisingly clipped. “Got lucky.”

Carolina swallowed. “You still ended up here.” 

He laughed at her. “_ That’ _s because Control made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.” 

“Dead horse in your bed?”

“Nah, a shitton of fucking money.” Felix laughed, shaking his head just a little bit as he spoke. “Not some reference to a _ 600 year old _movie.”

It was enough that it forced a little snort out of Carolina. “Got it.” 

Felix shook his head though. “I had to do a little digging, McCallister. Had to call some friends back home to get your files.” 

Carolina blinked. If there was any part where her entire mission was going to end up falling apart, it was there and then. “And?”

“I didn’t really see anything impressive.” Felix mumbled. “I mean, your background looked like about the exact same as every other asshole we’ve got working for us. I mean, all you have to be able to do is hold your own and keep a low profile.” 

Carolina swallowed. “I think that’s something that I’m capable of.” 

“I’m sure you are.” He muttered. “Just do me a favor and try to stick around. I don’t want to have to get rid of the first decently—” Felix cut himself off and shook his head, apparently unsure that whatever he wanted to say was something that Carolina needed to hear. “Forget it. Point is, I don’t want you ending up in a mass grave or something just yet.”

_ Yet. _ Epsilon grumbled. _ How fucking comforting. _

And yeah, she felt the same way.

Carolina nodded along, even though Felix wouldn’t be able to see them. She glanced back over her shoulder at the Warthog, and saw that Felix had intentionally driven so far ahead that they’d left everyone behind the two of them. The dirt that had gotten kicked up by Felix’s wheels had left a considerable cloud of dust between them and the Warthog.

He’d also gotten her off of the shared channel that the rest of her team was on.

There was no way in hell that it was all a good thing.

If Felix wanted to prove that she’d blown her cover, drag her off, and kill her, the opportunity was certainly there. 

Felix didn’t move from the road, though. He kept them going on the exact same road that they had been even when they’d left Outpost Echo. “Just for the record,” He spoke up out of nowhere. “Officially, this means that you’ve done the bare minimum required to be allowed to stay on base. You’re not officially part of our forces until Locus decides you’re worth the armor you wear and you get a paycheck. You’ve gotta understand, you can’t have all of your forces under one person’s approval. You’ve got mine. Locus won’t be as easy.”

Carolina swallowed. She didn’t _ want _ the paycheck. She didn’t _ want _ to be rolling in the blood money from whatever it was that the mercenaries were up to. And it was _ blood _ money. People had died for the sake of their mission. People were being starved, they were being left to suffer, they were being strung along until the next time they ran into conflict with each other and then—

And then the mercenaries and their men would act as complete vultures. They’d pick everything that they ever could off of the corpses, until there was nothing of worth left. And then they'd leave them to rot in the sun, or in the very beds where they’d been shot.

She was a _ monster _ for ever going along with it. 

But she _ needed _to know who Control was.

Monsters fighting monsters. What a universe.

“I understand, sir.” Carolina mumbled just loud enough that Felix would be able to hear her. It was more than clear what she was. What her role was. What role she was meant to play in the long run of things. 

She just had to get Locus' approval, and then she was free. She was officially part of the forces. She had _ nothing to fear. _

She had no choice but to continue to participate. For the sake of the mission.

“Good.” Felix hissed back at her, like he’d just gotten what he wanted all at once. Like he was _ glad _ that Carolina had said what she had.

After that the two of them fell into an uncomfortable quiet, one which was only ever broken by the sound of the Mongoose’s engine roaring as they drove closer and closer back to Outpost Echo. She wished that she was back on the Warthog with the others. She wished that she'd been allowed to simply squeeze herself into place alongside the weapons cache. At least that way she wouldn’t have had to be so close to Felix as she was then.

Reaching the hills that surrounded Outpost Echo was a relief. 

Felix took them up over the hills, and down into Outpost Echo.

By the time Coyote and the rest of the squad pulled in, Carolina was already off in the showers trying her best to wash the sweat, the stench of death, and the guilt off of herself under freezing cold water. 

An hour later, she attended a debriefing.

An hour after that, she was left to her own devices.

* * *

Hours later, Carolina had come to the conclusion that Coyote wasn’t the _ worst _ roommate that Carolina could imagine. Not by a _ large _ margin, was she the worst.

Sadly, this was something that Carolina knew from experience.

It was a sad matter of fact that back in Project Freelancer she’d ended up sharing a room with York due to rankings for a short while due to an arrangement where #1 on the leaderboard got their own room, and then everyone else was paired off according to ranking. Once Tex had been in the picture, Carolina had been moved down to having a roommate like everyone else would be. 

And York had _ not _ been a good roommate. York wasn’t even within the orbit of being a good roommate. It had taken Carolina approximately forty five minutes before she’d realized that he was a particular brand of privileged extrovert that made for an uncomfortable arrangement. It hadn’t been the dirty socks, or the rest of the dirty laundry, it was the fact that he was immediately inviting people to the room and leaving the door open for anyone to come in and try to make friends. 

Well, there was _ that _ and the fact that she couldn’t deal with listening to philosophy talk at three in the morning _ every _ morning. That and she was pretty sure that there was a decent span of time where York was just abusing the healing unit for all it was worth. Not to mention that it was a regular occurance for North to show up at some ungodly hour of the morning because he wanted company in the form of York.

Even years later, how York managed to hold onto his rank was an absolute goddamn mystery in Carolina’s mind. Because it sure as hell didn’t look like York actually worked at it. She knew for a fact that he _ did _ work, but his social habits seemed like they would have outweighed the work by a significant margin. And yet they never did, somehow.

Coyote was a different story. 

Coyote didn’t bother her _ at all _. She seemed to have a decent work ethic, and Epsilon was constantly at work putting together profiles on every person at Outpost Echo that he possibly could. He wasn’t bold enough to show himself, but Coyote didn’t seem interested enough in Carolina’s being so she could work at least some of the time when her roommate was there.

So far, Carolina and Epsilon had discovered that McTavish’s presence on Chorus was the result of more than a couple court martials with charges ranging everywhere from a DUI (somehow involving a bicycle of all things, Carolina had _ no idea _ what that was about) and a discharge which appeared to have to do with fraternization. Epsilon had kindly decided to spare Carolina on the details. 

All that Carolina had gotten about Darnoldson (even despite the fact that they had his full name,) was that he was a former employee of Charon Industries. Epsilon had managed to pull up a couple of access badges but otherwise Darnoldson had a relatively uneventful career track, up until going for Chorus. _ Why _ he’d gone to Chorus wasn’t clear. It certainly didn’t line up with his nursing assistant license or EMT experience. It didn’t even line up with his position at Charon in a research branch.

Aside from that, they’d found that the cook Orville (whom everyone called _ Pops _as the result of a sick joke,) was an ex-con. Tara Go hadn’t been easy to track down but she apparently had a background in logistics for some defunct project. A handful of other space pirates turned out to be UNSC washouts and more than a couple had backgrounds as bounty hunters. 

Actually, most of them were bounty hunters. Carolina couldn't really act like she was surprised by it.

Coyote hadn’t been as easy to figure out. To the point where Epsilon was trying hard to get into her systems every night to no avail. She knew how to scrub a system, how to protect her identity. 

Carolina could respect it, as annoying as it got. 

Aside from Coyote, there was just the mercs left. 

Locus had gone completely incommunicado since his one time dropping onto base. Carolina hadn’t seen Felix since arriving back at Outpost Echo and debriefing. The only files that Epsilon had managed to copy on the way back from Felix’s helmet had been of questionable quality at best.

Epsilon had described Felix’s file organization as “worse than fucking Tucker’s.” From what Carolina had seen, that was saying something. 

Mainly, they’d learned that Felix had a monthly budget that seemed to be used for paying the bills on some unspecified property. Epsilon guessed an apartment somewhere. Carolina imagined a house of sorts, based on how much money was being demanded. Felix’s monthly budget _ also _ left a lot to be desired, since it was laid out with no accounting for current income. At the very least, he was beyond financially stable.

Whoever was paying him, it wasn’t clear. _ How _he was being paid was even less clear. 

There weren’t any legal names other than what Carolina had to assume was fake since running the name through searches brought up absolutely nothing. Being unable to go into the issue using facial recognition due to Epsilon’s limitations didn’t help the matter.

Even despite getting what should have been useful files, (a couple of journal entries, a monthly budget, a small handful of what appeared to be personal photos, and a very strange collection of old mission logs,) Carolina and Epsilon turned up nothing of use. Felix used a rotation of fake names, and relevant metadata was always deleted. 

The useless files hadn’t done anything but tell Carolina that Felix _ really _ needed to clear out his email inbox due to the amount of spam. Well, that and he probably should do more work to delete his more questionable message threads on basebook. Carolina didn’t need to know how much time Felix spent flirting with someone by the name of Vanessa Kimball, but it was apparently _ a lot. _ And she was just the tip of the ice berg. 

_ Look, it’s not my fault that he knows how to hide shit, _ Epsilon defended himself as Carolina scrolled through her datapad. _ I’m doing my best _.

And Carolina _ knew _ it wasn’t his fault. That didn’t stop her from being annoyed that they were continuing to make what felt like absolutely zero progress. 

She glanced over at her teammate’s bunk and thought hard on everything that was happening. 

_ Are you sure you don’t have anything? _ Carolina asked one last time. 

_ Maybe. _ Epsilon responded. _ Let’s try to take a walk and see what we get. People are allowed to wander here, right? Maybe we’ll stumble on something or some shit. _

And _ that _ was a very good point. 

Carolina climbed out of her bunk and looked over toward her locker where she knew her armor was inside. If she took something down to the armory to try and make further adjustments she at least had a reason to be out of her barrack. Even a reason to be off on her own. 

She went to her locker and opened the door. “Coyote—” She spoke up as she removed the chestpiece from it. “I’m going down to the armory to try and make some adjustments. I’m still not happy with where my armor is.” 

Coyote looked up at her, head still hidden behind her helmet and nodded. “Whatever you say, Carolina. I’m just gonna be in here.” Carolina’s working theory was that when Coyote was off-planet, she was downloading every TV show imaginable. 

Not that Carolina could blame a space pirate for pirating television. The Disney-Comcast-Charon-Amazon merger had gotten really out of hand fast. To the point where Carolina kind of had to wonder how people were able to afford the Disney Prime+ packages.

“Thanks.” Carolina said as she went toward the door. She reached out and prepared to pull the door open, hesitant. 

Coyote shot upright. “You have an access code, right?”

Carolina blinked. “Access code?”

“Shit.” Coyote muttered. “Okay, so you want to use 9324 on the number pad. It’s Darnoldson’s code, but we all use it. Nobody really gives a shit if people are in there as long as nothing expensive goes missing.” 

_ Got it. _ Epsilon noted. _ Let’s head out. _

_ “ _Thanks.” Carolina sighed. “I’ll be back soon.” 

“Good luck.” Coyote muttered. “McTavish heard Locus was on base so… look out for that. Or don’t, you won’t see him probably. He loves his cloaking unit.” 

It _ was _ a weird thing to think about, but Carolina made of note of it. Based on the things that she _ had _heard, she wasn’t entirely certain that she wanted to run into the mercenary in person. It wasn’t as though anyone she’d spoken to had been particularly kind or forgiving in their descriptions of him. Felix had mentioned that Locus was interested in armor and weapons, but Carolina doubted he’d be in the armory. 

Besides, a trip to the armory was a chance to look around and get an idea of what they _ actually _had on hand. She could take a mental inventory in case she ever needed to make some sort of assault on the Outpost, or get out with enough to put up a fight later. 

She could deprive them of their resources the same way that they tried to do to the people of Chorus.

The armory looked like every other building at Outpost Echo on first glance. It was prefabricated. Built out of sheets of pre-cut metal, with no signs on the outside to even indicate what its purpose was. Sure enough there was the number pad at the door, but nothing else. No windows, no painted on serial numbers, nothing. The intent was probably, if Carolina had to guess, so that they could pack up and take everything that they had in a hurry and not leave any obvious signs of what they were up to. 

It wasn’t the best guess, but it was a guess nonetheless. Either way, it seemed obvious to her that Outpost Echo was meant to be a temporary base at best.

Carolina checked over her shoulder to be certain that she was alone and approached the armory where she punched in the same access code that Coyote had given her. 

The pad gave off a little dial tone with each number. 9-3-2-4.

The door unlocked for her with a quiet click, and Carolina let herself into the armory. It was thankfully empty, so she closed the door behind her and carried the breastplate to the table in the middle of the room which was presumably set aside for all manner of maintenance. Weapons, armor, and everything in between if Carolina had to guess. 

She stepped away from her armor just long enough to check for a set of tools when she saw something sitting in the corner. 

It was a single helmet, dark grey with a green X painted over the face. Skull shaped. Distinctive. Obvious. Menacing.

It was a helmet that she’d only seen once before, always over transmissions where she had been playing along in the role of Control while speaking to Locus. It was a helmet which she could never recall actually seeing in person.

She wasn’t alone. 

Not only was she not alone, she was sharing the armory with who she had to assume was the single most dangerous person on Chorus. If he wasn’t the most dangerous, he was sure as hell a close second.

_ Shit. _

Carolina found the set of tools that she needed though, and carried it over to the table so that she could get back to micro-adjusting the chest piece down to the size that she needed. 

From between the racks, she heard a voice. 

“You need a smaller set of tools.” The person, no, _ Locus _ said from wherever he was. She heard the sound of a gun being set down and knew that Locus was up to something. What, she didn’t know. She almost didn’t want to know, but knowing would also be the best thing to keep her safe in that instance. “The Stalker-class torso requires more precise adjustments.”

Carolina raised an eyebrow. It definitely wasn’t what she had been expecting.

“Thanks?” She asked, setting the set of tools that she’d grabbed down and going to search for another since _ apparently _ what she had wasn’t adequate for the task at hand. “Anything else?”

“No.” Locus replied, still between the rows of shelves doing whatever it was that he was doing. If Carolina had to guess, he was probably making a choice of weapon for his next mission.It was the only thing that made any sense for him to be doing, at the very least. 

Carolina found the tools that she needed and went to work on her armor. The Locus helmet stared at her from where it sat on the table. Some of the wiring had been pulled out of the jaw, she realized. The fine wires hanged out of the helmet’s shell like torn tendons. Perhaps his communications systems were down and he’d come in to repair them.

_ Nah, that’s not it. _ Epsilon provided. _ Just where his equipment unit is probably installed. Assholes probably doing work to make his gear more compact. Or not go completely offline if he loses his helmet. _

_ How does he see out of that thing then? _ Carolina asked as she began to unscrew one of the side panels of her armor. 

_ Cameras. _ Epsilon said. _ Full spectrum too. Not cheap. Could be fixing those up too. _

Carolina wasn’t sure she wanted to know more. She leaned in close to her armor and gently pulled the first panel away. It was heavier than she’d imagined at first, which explained at least a little bit about it. 

She just needed to figure out how to get the fit better. That was all she needed to do, really. She just needed to find a way to keep it from shifting on her shoulders so that she was less likely to end up dead in the long term. 

Carolina set her focus on the armor and it lasted for all of 45 seconds before she heard the sound of Locus stepping out from behind the rows of supplies. When he came out he was carrying a tiny packet of something which Carolina didn’t recognize at first. As he got closer, she got a glimpse of it to read the word _ lenses _ , which had been neatly printed on a masking tape label _ . _

It at least put some light on the camera theory. 

Locus didn’t look over at her. He kept his head bowed so that his hair hung down into his face and obscured it. He even made an effort to put his back to her at all times for the sake of scant privacy. Even when he got to his helmet he placed his back to her so that she couldn’t see him directly. It almost struck Carolina that he was doing the most that he possibly could just in the name of avoiding her entirely. 

Carolina eyed his back for a moment, unable to help feeling at least a little bit curious about Locus. The way that everyone at Outpost Echo carried on made it seem like they were afraid of him. There had to be a reason for it. There had to be a reason for the rumor and Felix’s little indirect jabs. 

But based on the man that she shared the armory with, Carolina didn’t know what to think. Something about the stories versus what she was actually seeing just felt off.

She glanced back at him over her shoulder, but saw nothing of interest but dark silver-chased hair. 

Carolina looked back down at her chest piece and started to get to work, looking for the best possible ways that she could adjust the fit to be more close to her own body. The only problem was that doing so wasn’t easy when she was out of armor. 

It also wasn’t easy knowing that her bodysuit still didn’t fit her perfectly. No matter how well-adjusted her armor was, if the bodysuit had a wrong fit, it probably wouldn’t actually matter all that much.

Behind her, there was the quiet sound of wires being re-arranged and tightened down into place. There were no sounds to make it sound as though Locus was even remotely unsure of what he was doing. Instead, he just sounded steady and secure. Like whatever he was doing was something that he’d done a hundred times before. It was entirely possible that to Locus it was simply routine upkeep.

Carolina let out a little grunt as she turned her chest piece over on the work bench. It sat unsteadily, like it was going to rock the first time that she even tried to get to work on it. 

She looked back over her shoulder at where Locus was standing. “Do you know if we have a vice?” She asked, voice low. 

Locus seemed to bristle and go stiff the second that she spoke to him. He even let out a low breath like he was trying to calm himself. He didn’t turn to face her though. Carolina had a feeling that Locus never would. 

_ Bad idea, _ Epsilon told her matter of factly. 

A steady half-minute passed before Locus decided to speak. “There's one in the back.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow and slipped away from the suit of armor that she was at work on. 

The rows of racks were tall enough that she couldn’t hope to peer over them. Even looking _ through _ them was difficult based on the sheer amount of clutter that filled the armory shed. If there was any sort of organization method at play there, it was that whatever was usable was sorted neatly and set aside for the instance where someone needed a weapon issued to them. Everything else was set aside as salvage. 

And if it was set as salvage, it went onto the shelves with only basic labels to indicate what should go where. In which case Carolina assumed people had to know their own part numbers to get much of anything done. 

A vice however, was a universal piece of equipment. That was the silver lining on the matter.

Sure enough, she found one tucked in at the back, sitting on a shelf and looking like one of the few things that got moved off of it often if the layer of dust on everything else there was any indicator. Carolina frowned as she lifted it up, muscles straining under its weight and carried it back to the work bench. She set it down on top and hesitated as she searched for a spot to fasten it down in. 

Locus didn’t look back at her, but he did speak. “It’s magnetic.” He mumbled. 

And _ that _ was helpful. 

Carolina set it upright and got it into a comfortable position. The chest piece went into place perfectly, then fastening into place took no effort whatsoever. 

Even still, Locus didn’t look back at her as he fiddled with helmet parts with what looked like extremely delicate tools. His hands dwarfed them, even as he held a pair of tweezers between his ring finger and middle finger where he could keep them out of the way for the moment. Carolina allowed herself to shift over just slightly enough to see what he was doing. 

Locus’ fingers were pinching a small bundle of wires together. The tweezers got set down in favor of a small plastic zip tie, possibly the smallest that Carolina had ever seen. Locus’ nimble, thick fingers carefully tied the wires together and clipped the plastic that was leftover on the tie. The bundle was then inserted into the hull of Locus’ helmet with the same tweezers that he’d just held. 

For such delicate work, Locus was skilled. That much was obvious.

Carolina swallowed and looked back at her chest piece. Someone else’s chest piece. Whichever it was. 

“So, I’m new here.” Carolina started a conversation, though she didn’t entirely expect to get much of a response. “You guys don’t have someone to do armor upkeep, do you?”

“We do.” Locus mumbled. “At Outpost Beta.”

_ We should try and get out there. _ Epsilon said. _ You know, just in case. Sure as hell wouldn’t hurt. _

Carolina blinked, and couldn’t help but wonder whether it would be possible for her to go there and get her own gear fixed. Either that or the armor would be identified as having a former owner. Although, a part of Carolina was fairly certain that _ all _ of the armor that the space pirates used was probably pre-owned, in one way or another. 

She didn’t know what to say. Mostly, she was pretty sure that she was about to piss Locus off and the man had more than a reputation on base. Mostly, just about everyone seemed to be at least a little bit afraid of him. A lot afraid of him. Whichever.

Everyone aside from Felix, at least. And Carolina was _ certain _ that there was a reason for _ that _. 

“So why not go to them?” Carolina asked. “Or have someone here?”

“Lack of resources.” Locus explained himself with what had to have been an excuse. It was more likely, Carolina theorized, that he simply knew what he was doing and just didn’t trust anyone else with his equipment. “You should have arrived here with properly issued armor.” 

Carolina sighed. “I was a last minute recruit.” She offered by way of explanation, and really, that wasn’t _ false _ in the strictest sense of the word. “I think I fell through the cracks.”

Locus grunted. “Learn to maintain your own armor.” He mumbled. “When you’re in the field you won’t have access to an armor technician.”

It was a good point, if not a cynical one. 

“I just got it.” Carolina retorted. She could at least explain the lack of a perfect fit.

“That’s not an excuse.” Locus tucked another set of wire up into the husk of his helmet. If Carolina listened close enough she could have picked up the quiet sound of the wires fastening into position with a click. He turned toward her for just a moment, just enough that she could get the slightest glimpse of dark skin that somehow managed to look as warm as it looked washed out from lack of sunlight. “Maintain your equipment, soldier.” 

He had a point. Carolina _ knew _ he had a point. It didn’t make it any less frustrating. 

She blinked and stood up tall. “I’m sorry.” She said, thought she kept a hard edge to her words. Enough to show that she wasn’t going to get pushed around while Epsilon tried to search up equipment manuals by accessing the chest piece’s hardware. “I didn’t realize I was so useless, _ sir _.” 

Locus grabbed a spare datapad off of the workbench that was sitting beside Carolina. She watched Locus carefully plug some sort of cord into it, which Carolina realized was running out of the helmet itself. She had to crane her neck to get a look at the screen on the datapad. 

All she got on it was a display that showed the ceiling above her and Locus’ heads. 

_ Yeah, so, _ Epsilon spoke up. _ I think I managed to find a manual on the chest piece. Might be a two man job to get it fitted though. _

And _ that _ was just fucking great. 

Carolina stole another glance at Locus over her shoulder. He waved a pair of fingers in front of something on the helmet, what looked like a simple indented dot. A dark shadow appeared on the datapad screen. Locus picked the datapad up and began to fiddle with some controls. 

Calibrating the cameras, Carolina realized. 

_ Looks like double calibration, _ Epsilon offered. _ Trying to get in. Guy’s got that shit locked down pretty tight. Both on the datapad and on his gear itself. I don’t think you’re getting shit out of him like this. _

She said nothing, but looked back to the chest piece. She at least was going to need her own datapad or her helmet if she was going to fix it properly by the looks of things. That wasn’t exactly the most thrilling thing to have to think about, but it seemed to be the case. 

It certainly wasn’t something she looked forward to. 

She couldn’t just stand around in the armory doing nothing though. She had to go and get the rest of her gear if she was going to get anything else done. 

Carolina cast a passing glance at Locus and left the armory, and her armor, alone with him without another word. 

_ This is so fucking risky, I hope you realize that. _ Epsilon told her, sure to tweak her shoulder while he was at it. _ What happens if he decides to look under the hood and he ends up finding experimental tech from Project Freelancer? _

“He won’t.” Carolina whispered as she slipped back into her barrack. She bee lined for her locker and grabbed her helmet and a datapad just in case she needed the extra screen. She considered taking out the rest of her supplies as well, but settled with only taking the body suit since that was a relatively critical part of fitting armor to begin with. 

Coyote was thankfully gone. If Carolina had to guess, she was off smoking in the vehicle bay since that _ appeared _ to be a relatively common pastime at Outpost Echo. Probably because there was also nothing else to do at Outpost Echo.

With everything that she needed, Carolina hurried back to the armory. 

When she arrived, Locus was still there, but he’d put his helmet on and was seemingly going through a more in-depth calibration process using the datapad at his side. His head snapped up toward the door when she slipped in after dialing in the same access code that she’d used earlier. 

Locus raised a hand and signaled for her to stop. Carolina took the command, sure to stand in the doorway. 

He stared at her, probably flicking through countless vision settings on his helmet all the while. “Move.” He ordered after a moment, head not moving but him able to track her with the datapad which he held as though it were a gun, just for the purpose of the exercise. 

Once, Carolina had seen North and York go through a similar thing. It had involved North’s new tracking unit and needing to keep track of a slippery target without moving from position. York had always decided to put himself in the vents and make North track him down that way. The end result had been that both of them had a far more intimate knowledge than they should have of the ventilation systems on the Mother of Invention.

The idea that Locus might have had a tracking unit of some sort didn’t seem too far out of the question. To Carolina’s knowledge, LOCUS class helmets were mostly used for snipers anyways. In another life, North could have even ended up wearing one. 

Although, the skull motif was far from something that North would have put on willingly. South would have probably been into it, though. 

Actually, South _ definitely _ would have been into it.

Carolina approached the table and set her things down on top of it. Locus still didn’t look at her. She said nothing, since she figured the best thing that she could do was let Locus just do what he was doing. 

Carolina stared down at the unfamiliar Recon helmet and pulled it on with a sigh, since it was the best that she could do. 

Immediately, an Epsilon-shaped avatar appeared on her HUD as the helmet booted up. “Hey.” He said to her, sound confined to just her. “So yeah, you’re definitely going to need a second set of hands for this one.” Epsilon started. 

And _ that _ was not only just what Carolina feared, it was also exactly what she didn’t want to hear. The closest that she could get to a second set of hands was Locus and she had her doubts that he’d be willing to help at all. 

She just shook her head and gave Epsilon the chance to bring up the schematics that he’d been looking for earlier. 

All in all, the Stalker-class torso’s chest piece didn’t seem too complicated. Fixing it was mostly going to be a matter of just getting it on and into place. Something which would have been much easier had Carolina had a properly fitting body suit that was compatible with her new armor. 

Locus said nothing to her. He only existed as a shadow in the room, one which she didn’t want to have to acknowledge even though she knew that the time would come when she had to do so eventually. If Carolina was lucky, she could even avoid it until the last possible second. 

She eyed her body suit and considered it for a moment. 

She _ was _ in an armory. If there was any chance of getting a better fitted suit, it would be there. 

“Locus.” Carolina said, mentally amending the statement with a _ sir _ even though she wasn’t fully certain that it was necessary to do so. “Do you know if there would be spare suits here?”

“No.” Locus mumbled, lifting a sniper rifle and looking down the scope in a sort of test. “Full armor kits are immediately issued out as soon as they’re needed.” 

Which, made sense. 

“And body suits?”

He paused, holding the rifle in a way that still spoke to his own hesitation. He was just as unsure of himself there as Carolina was. Without a word, Locus turned and set the rifle down on the bench behind him. There was a stiffness to his motions though, irritation and lack of surety all too obvious. 

“Perhaps.” He grumbled, helmet tilting as he sized her up. Stared. 

“God, this is fucking gross.” Epsilon mumbled. “I swear to god, sis, if you need me to find a way to fuck up his cameras—”

Carolina nearly physically revolted at the suggestion. She turned away from Locus and made her way to the back of the armory in the hopes that she could get some space. Epsilon’s suggestion left her feeling like her stomach was churning. 

“You can’t tell me you don’t think he was thinking it.” Epsilon commented, a scanning matrix appearing on Carolina’s HUD as he started to seek out any spare body suits which could have been stored there on site. If they weren’t, Carolina feared she’d have to hope for the occasion to arise where she could loot one. 

And then she’d probably have to spend at least an hour washing the blood out after. 

A clean replacement where she didn’t know _ exactly _ where it had come from was better. 

“He’s not—” Carolina whispered to Epsilon, low enough that she was certain that nobody outside of her helmet could hear her. “I don’t think that was it.” 

“That's what it looked like to me.” Epsilon muttered, Carolina’s HUD blinking in the process. “Think I found what you’re looking for. I can’t really help you out much with measurements though.” 

Carolina rolled her eyes. She _ knew _ that Epsilon could do a lot with math, but usually there wasn’t any sense that there were clear limitations to it. A lack of clear limitations seemed to be a running trend with all of the Project Freelancer AI Fragments, though.

It was lucky that she knew her own measurements. She’d seen them marked clearly on the inner collar of the body suit that Project Freelancer had issued her. She'd seen them every day of her life for years. If she needed to, she probably could have even come up with more than a few teammate’s measurements. 

All that she needed to do was come up with a match, or something resembling a match. If she could just get close she would be golden. 

At least until she got to a point where she could get her own gear commissioned to fit her and only her. 

Epsilon set trackers on the box of body suits and let Carolina get there for herself. Se had to make sure to play along as though she didn’t know where she was going though. Tipping Locus off to the fact that Epsilon existed _ at all _ would be the quickest way possible to blow her entire cover. 

The box was located on the bottom shelf of a rack that had been pressed up against the wall. It was a sealed foot locker, no doubt locked up so that the valuable contents inside couldn’t get disturbed by outside forces. Getting the latch open was simple, and when Carolina opened up the case she was presented immediately with a clip board. 

The single sheet attached to the clip board was a sign out sheet, purpose obvious enough. 

The nice thing was that it listed all of the suits that were in the case though, including the measurements on each and every one of them. Next to those measurements were any names of people that had used those pieces of armor before, dates that they’d left and re-entered the armory, and squad numbers. 

More than a few had been marked with dates of death. 

Epsilon scanned the sheet and highlighted a certain row in blue. 

“Try that one.” He said. “Looks like it’s been in there a while.” 

“Yeah…” Carolina reached in and began to rifle through the folded up body suits in search of the suit in question. 

She found it at the bottom, folded neatly and clean and waiting to be used. Carolina peeked over at Epsilon’s avatar and found that his HUD presentation seemed relatively relaxed. Not relaxed enough that Epsilon could use a projection of himself, but relaxed enough that he wasn’t hiding away completely. 

Carolina immediately flipped the collar over in the hopes of finding the numbers that would help her decide if the suit would fit her or not. Instead, what she found was useless. 

Actually, it was beyond useless. It was something that spoke to the nature of the war on Chorus, where nothing was personalized and everything that they had needed to be available to anyone on the market. 

It didn’t give exact measurements. 

It only read “Women’s Small.” 

And _ that _ was useless. 

Beyond, useless, even. It was somehow even more useless than the sizes which were used on civilian clothes where a seven in one brand wouldn’t mean _ nearly _ the same thing in another. 

The difference was that vanity sizing on clothes was _ annoying. _

Useless sizing on armor would probably get her _ killed _. 

“Epsilon?” Carolina asked. “Any chance you can get actual measurements on this?”

“Not without you putting it on first.” Epsilon answered her. “And if you’re going to do that, can you at least make sure that you’re alone first? And also let me know beforehand so I can just. You know. Go offline.”

“_Epsilon.” _

“Hey!” He exclaimed quietly. “Don’t get mad at me for not being able to do something. It’s not my fault.”

Carolina sighed. He was right. She _ knew _ he was right. 

It didn’t make her feel any less frustrated. 

Carolina folded the body suit back up, set it down on the shelf above where it had been set down, and reached for the clipboard. Carefully, she printed her false name onto the sheet, the date, and the time. Finished, the clipboard went back into the box and Carolina sealed it the same way that it had been when she’d opened it up in the first place. 

She was half-way through standing up when she bumped into something solid. 

Or rather, _ someone. _

Carolina jumped at the feeling of it, and whirled around just in time to see the active cloaking on Locus' armor drop. 

She tilted her head and stared up at him. She missed her old helmet, how it always managed to make it look like she was glaring at someone even when she wasn’t. That trait had been useful when it came to keeping everyone else in line. 

Carolina couldn’t help but wonder whether or not the skull shape of Locus' helmet had the same effect or not. Whether it was part of the intent for the helmet’s design.

“_Can I help you?” _ Carolina grit out. She couldn’t just start a fight with him. She knew that. She needed to be able to maintain her cover for as long as possible. Fighting either of the mercs was a bad idea. 

“No.” Locus said. “You shouldn’t need that.” He mumbled, head staying eerily still. Locus reached forward though, with a steadiness that almost managed to be inhuman and trailed his gloved fingers over the body suit. Lovingly, too slowly. Unclear intent. “Why are you looking for a new one?”

Carolina let out a breath. “It’s like I told you,” She repeated the same lie from earlier. “I was a late recruit and fell through the cracks.” 

“So none of your armor fits.” Locus commented, skeptical. Reasonably skeptical. Curious, possibly.

“Correct.” Carolina answered him, jerking the folded body suit away from his grip. “I’m sorry that I’m doing what I can to get it together.”

Locus watched her. 

She wondered what he looked like under the helmet. Carolina knew about the dark skin and the hair which was clearly going grey. She hadn’t seen his face though. 

In her mind, she could almost imagine an ugliness to Locus. Torn flesh that bared the bones, that would have been able to match with his helmet on its own. 

Or he looked like a normal person. A normal person with a particularly intense lack of social skills. 

He looked down at the body suit again. “If you are so desperate,” He muttered .“I wonder what it was that made Felix approve you for our ranks.” 

_ Our ranks. _ Carolina noted. So Locus and Felix working together _ was _ true.

“It must have been my field performance, _ sir. _” Carolina grit out the word. She wasn’t happy about it. Carolina wasn’t entirely sure that she’d ever be happy about it. “But he did approve me.”

“So he did.” Locus grumbled. He hesitated for a moment, considering. His head turned toward her, slow and deliberate in a stare. “Consider that to be the last piece of armor you will take from this armory, Private McCallister.” Locus took his time, the threat obvious enough. If he caught her stealing from the armory, he would have her killed. 

_ Not that he could actually do it _, Carolina thought cockily. 

“Understood.” Carolina mumbled, looking back down at the rubberized suit. 

Regardless of whether it fit or not, she had no choice. Locus had drawn a line, clear as day.

“We’ll make it work.” Epsilon told her quietly. “Maybe if we get lucky I can find a way for us to tailor it to you. I mean, you can sew, right?”

There was a long pause, mostly because Carolina couldn’t risk answering in Locus’ presence. 

“Yeah, good point.” Epsilon simulated a sigh. “We’ll figure it out. This asshole can’t stop you.” 

Carolina _ wished _ that Epsilon was right. 

Locus stood there though, a moment too long, far too intensely. But he did back off eventually, given the time to do so. Even as he left Carolina alone he gave her a wide berth. 

When Locus left the armory, Carolina almost felt a wave of relief wash over her. 

She still had to finish figuring out her armor, but at least she had _ space. _

And all in all, Epsilon was better company anyways. At least he couldn’t go breathing down her neck like Locus did.


	5. The Vehicle Bay

Late that night, Carolina laid awake in her bunk, Coyote sleeping peacefully off on the other side of the room where she couldn’t be bothered. There was a strange veneer of privacy, one which Carolina knew could be so easily shattered. All that it would take was a little too much light or sound, and Coyote would probably wake up and Carolina would surely see her cover shattered. 

The run-in with Locus earlier that day had left her feeling… off. Not quite like she didn’t know what she was doing there at Outpost Echo anymore, but enough to feel like she didn’t quite know how to navigate the place anymore. She’d thought that dealing with Felix was a problem in itself, but apparently Felix was the tip of the iceberg.

After all, Felix was rash and rude and didn’t seem to give even a half of a single fuck about how he effected the people around him. 

Locus was also rude, but Carolina got more of the impression that he simply didn’t know how to handle people as opposed to Felix’s devil-may-care attitude. 

But for a moment there, Locus had gotten her penned in between the racks of supplies and Carolina hadn’t been completely sure that she could have escaped. Not when he was the one wearing full armor, using a cloaking unit. Not when he had a high impact rifle undoubtedly within reach. 

Had Locus figured out that Epsilon was there, Carolina would have been dead. She had no doubts about it. 

What would have happened to Epsilon, she simply didn’t know. Either way, she had no illusions that Epsilon would have been taken and used elsewhere. A smart AI, even a fragmented one, was too valuable of a resource to ignore.

She was wasting so much time on an infiltration that seemed to be going absolutely _nowhere _at what she was sure could only be considered a record pace. 

She needed to do _something._

Against her better judgment, Carolina rolled out of bed and sat up straight. She cast a glance over at Coyote, who still slept quietly. 

Going for a walk probably wouldn’t hurt. At the very least it could give her plausible deniability if a walk was her main reasoning for being up.

Carolina slipped into a pair of shoes and out into the hall that adjoined her and Coyote’s room with McTavish and Darnoldson’s. There was no sound of showers running in the shared bathroom. There was no sound on the other side of either of the other two doors.

For all purposes, it seemed like she was actually alone. The only one awake and out of her bunk, as far as she’d seen so far.

Outside of the barrack was no different. There wasn’t any sign that anyone else was awake there on camp, at the very least. Carolina let out a little relieved breath and stretched her legs as she made her way across the camp. 

She couldn’t go to the dining hall to clear her head without people noticing it. Even then, she had enough of a reason to believe that Cook Pops actually lived in the kitchens, or pretty damn close to them. Probably close enough to make sure that their supplies didn’t go disappearing in the middle of the nights.

She also wouldn’t have doubted that the number of times the armory was accessed got monitored. Even if she’d wanted to go there, Locus’ threat was still hanging over her head. Going back so soon after their run-in and getting caught for it would only spell trouble in the long run.

Carolina hung her head and let out a heavy sigh. She was wasting her time. She needed to get her shit together, figure out what the mercs were up to, and get back to her friends. 

Wherever they were. 

Somewhere on the planet. Possibly alive. Probably still together. 

She hoped.

“Come on C,” Epsilon spoke up, “You know the guys, they’re doing fine. Assuming that Caboose hasn’t teamkilled the rest of them yet. He has a habit of doing that.” Epsilon paused, seemingly in thought. Running calculations was more likely, Carolina thought. Maybe his avatar was flickering Delta green back on her helmet’s HUD.

“I don’t know that.” Carolina whispered. “They might be fine, but I can’t be sure.”

Because it was _true. _The Reds and Blues were capable of taking care of themselves to an extent, but they were also complete and utter _morons _. Red Team was good at working together, but fell behind on hare-brained schemes. The Blues were just Caboose and Tucker, and Carolina had _serious _doubts about either of their leadership skills. With regard to Caboose, Epsilon also brought up a very good point.

The only thing keeping them all alive might have very well been Wash. 

And Wash….

She didn’t know Wash the way that she used to. He wasn’t the weird kid that she knew back in Project Freelancer any more. There was more steel to him, more armor where there hadn’t been before. His mettle had been tested, and it was clear that he’d come out stronger for it.

He just wasn’t the same person that she’d known in PFL. It was part of the reason why she and Epsilon had decided to leave.

“It's okay to miss them_ ,” _Epsilon told her gently, artificially warming her skin by manipulating her nerves. “I mean, hell, I didn’t think I’d miss Caboose but here I am.”

“I know.” Carolina mumbled. “I just need to—”

Carolina heard something and her head whipped around as she searched for a place to hide and disappear. If she’d had her armor it would have been so much easier, but she found it in the form of a small nook to the side of the vehicle bay. 

Inside, two familiar voices were talking. 

“I’m just saying—” The first said. Felix’s voice, Carolina realized. The way that the gravel sounded under his feet made it clear that he was in armor. Possibly pacing the vehicle bay. “That asshole’s holding out on us. If you need me to set up a supply run I will.” 

“That’s not it.” Locus’ deep rumble replied. “We haven’t had a soldier arrive in such—”

“Christ, enough with the paranoia.” Felix cut Locus off before the man could get a chance to finish. The crunching of the gravel under his feet stopped as he stopped dead in his tracks. “Did your armor fit perfectly the first week you had it?”

Locus didn’t answer. Carolina’s stomach flipped when she realized that she'd walked into gossip about _her. _

Or rather, Carolina thought, _complaints _was a more accurate term.

Felix took the silence for an answer. “Exactly.” He mumbled. “I mean, fuck, do you remember how much shit Jo—”

“Felix.” Locus cut his partner off. “Enough.” 

“Right.” Felix sounded distinctly annoyed. “I’ll keep an eye on it. Why don’t you just get your shit together, head back to little Donny Doyle, and trust me to handle shit? I’m sure Doyle’s missing you by now.” 

“I’m not certain that’s wise.”

There was a sound that Carolina couldn’t quite make out. Followed by the sounds of gravel shifting under someone's feet as they walked. Carolina took a breath and leaned around the corner to see inside. 

What she found was Felix and Locus both in armor, helmets set off to the side. Locus was sitting on a Mongoose with his helmet in his hands while Felix—

Felix was pressed in close, his hands cupped around Locus’ jaw. His head obscured Locus’ face from view but it wasn’t much of a mystery what was going on. 

Carolina pressed herself back up against the building to hide once more. She’d _definitely _just seen too much. 

If they found her there and chose to kill her for seeing it, Carolina couldn’t act like she would have been surprised by it.

The mongoose started, and soon Locus was pulling out of the barrack and heading out of the camp on a road which was tucked away between the hills. He didn’t seem to notice her, even as he sped past the side of the building that Carolina was hiding on. 

It was a small blessing, if nothing else. 

Felix exited the vehicle bay and stretched, still carrying his helmet in his hands as he did so. He seemed… relaxed, of all things. It had _sounded _like Carolina had accidentally over heard an argument but now Carolina wasn’t quite so certain about it. There was something just off enough that she couldn’t put her finger on it.

The mercenary stopped where he was standing and turned, just as Carolina began to stand up. 

He caught a glimpse of her and turned her way. 

“Hey.” He called. “Who the fuck is there?”

_Shit._

Carolina stepped out from beside the building and into view, arms raised up just enough so that she could be certain she wasn’t about to get shot. “It’s Private McCallister.”

Felix eyed her. “Any reason you’re out of bed, soldier?” He turned toward her, and Carolina watched him drop a hand which had a throwing knife in it down to his side. “Because it’s a little late to be up. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s like 2 am.” 

“I couldn’t sleep.” Carolina told the truth. “I figured I’d take a walk to try and clear my head.” 

Felix raised an eyebrow. “I’m really meant to believe that?”

“It’s the truth.” Carolina admitted. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Right.” He scoffed. “So you weren’t spying on us?”

Carolina looked back at the vehicle hangar as it became increasingly clear that she needed a good excuse if she was going to be believed. “I wasn’t.” She said. “I heard you two arguing and I realized that getting caught was probably bad news.” 

Felix stared her down, intense and almost _angry _. Like she was another fly under a microscope, about to be taken apart by the limbs first at Felix’s hands. She could almost even imagine him _wanting _to do it too, and that was probably the worst part. 

That, and the fact that she’d heard more than enough rumors to suggest that Felix would enjoy the act as he did it. 

“What did you hear then?”

“Nothing.”

“See?” Felix pressed. 

“_ Nothing. _” Carolina snarled back. He had to believe her. If he didn't, Carolina was almost certain that her cover would be blown. And not even because of something which was technically her fault. 

Felix shook his head and to Carolina’s surprise let out a bitter, almost barking laugh. “Yeah, sure.” He muttered. “That’s what they say every time, new girl.” 

Whether she was off the hook, Carolina didn’t know. 

Felix raised an eyebrow in her direction though. “Come on, it’s not like I’m going to _kill _you for that. Christ, I believe you.” He rolled his eyes and shoved the knife back out of view into some hidden compartment in his armor.

A strange wave of relief washed over Carolina, even though she wasn’t fully convinced by what Felix said. 

“Right.” She breathed out quietly. “I’m sorry, Sir.” 

“Eh, don’t be.” Felix waved his hand and turned to go back into the vehicle bay. “It happens all the time. And I know for a fact that you've probably heard plenty through the rumor mill anyways. Asshole space pirates don’t really know how not to keep their mouths shut. If I could avoid paying you people, I really would, but Locs insists we keep some semblance of a professional operation.” 

_Take it. _Epsilon told her, referring to the opportunity that Felix had just given her on a silver platter. 

“I’ve heard a little.” Carolina admitted, unable to shake the feeling that she was expected to follow Felix. He didn’t pay her much mind, just walked to one of the Warthogs that was a the back of the area and climbed into the driver’s seat. Immediately, his feet ended up on the dashboard in front of him. 

Felix waved her over and Carolina approached, not the least bit sure of herself. 

She leaned against a wall, since she wasn’t sure that joining Felix in the warthog was the best idea.

“Well, tonight just didn’t happen, got it?” Felix asked, seeming slightly confirmed but also relaxed. He pulled a knife out of _somewhere _and began to fiddle with it. “Me and Locs have got reputations to uphold. I’m sure you get it.” 

“Noted.” Carolina said. She felt a tiny tug as Epsilon jumped away from her to try and get at some of the things in the vehicle bay. He didn’t tell her anything about what he was doing, just did it. Carolina assumed that she'd end up with an in-depth report to read through later on about the matter. 

“C’mon.” Felix said. “Might as well sit and relax. I mean, it's not like you’re sleeping, right?”

Admittedly, he _did _have a point there. 

Carolina approached the Warthog and climbed into the back, only to get immediately waved into the passenger’s seat. 

As soon as she was seated, she realized why the Warthog was tucked away in the back. 

Mostly, it was the fact that it was a stick shift. Carolina couldn’t even remember the last time that she’d even _heard _about a stick shift vehicle, let alone seen one. If she had to guess, there wasn’t a single person in the Space Pirate’s forces that knew how to handle the damn thing. 

So it sat there in the vehicle bay living out a weird fate as a break room of sorts, apparently. 

Felix laughed when he realized that she’d seen it. 

“Yeah.” He mumbled. “Fucking weird, right?”

“Very.” Carolina couldn’t help a little snorting laugh over how ridiculous it was. 

If she had to guess, Sarge could probably drive a stick shift. He seemed like the type.

Felix crossed his legs at the ankles. “This piece of shit came in on a supply drop. We had to push the thing into here manually. So fucking weird. It’s never left.” 

_I might be able to drive that thing, _Epsilon told Carolina, not entirely confident. _I mean, maybe. It counts as driving if you’re in the hardware, right?_

And yeah, he had _no _idea how to drive it. Even then, Carolina wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of Epsilon hiding out in a vehicle _again._

Carolina looked around the vehicle bay, unsure of what she was supposed to say to Felix. She'd been hoping to get something of use that night, but instead she’d gotten nothing. Epsilon was buried somewhere in hardware doing who knew what. Again the feeling that she was wasting her time crept up, just as sour as it always was. 

Felix didn’t seem to care that she didn’t say anything though. He simply decided to keep on talking. 

“If we could figure the damn thing out we’d salvage it for parts.” Felix mumbled. “Besides, I’m pretty sure there are stains we’re never getting out of the upholstery in the back.” 

Carolina’s stomach churned at the suggestion. It was definitely high on the list of things that she _didn’t need to know _.

Unless…

Carolina turned her head and eyed Felix. “You could just get rid of it.” 

“Hm?” Felix paused, the knife balanced over his knuckles. “Nah, it’s too fun to get rid of.” 

And that confirmed a lot. A lot more than Carolina had needed to know, at least. 

“That’s…” Carolina struggled to find the words that she needed. Like the words that she needed even _existed. _Her mind went back to the run-in with Locus and how goddamn_weird _it had gotten. She didn’t need that shit from Felix too, but at least if Felix was hitting on her he wasn’t being…

Well, he hadn’t gotten her into a literal corner for it. 

Felix smirked at her. “Something wrong, new girl?”

“I have a name.” Carolina snapped back, since it was easier than thinking of an actual response to Felix. “And it’s not new girl.” 

Felix paused, possibly having been successfully distracted away from the previous subject. His brow furrowed and his nose wrinkled a little bit with it like he was doing his best to keep himself from snarling in disgust. Or like he was thinking. But after a moment, he relaxed again, easy comfort sliding back over his face in a way that was too perfect to be entirely natural. 

“Right. McCallister. Locus was bitching about you earlier.” 

“I—”

“Don’t take it personally.” Felix cut her off. “He bitches about _everything _. You just happen to be the distraction of the day.” He paused though, considering the knife that now sat between his fingers. “Didn’t like that you were in the armory at the same time as him, mostly.” 

“I’m familiar.”

“It’s not about you.” Felix said, not bothering to look over at her. “He’s fucking paranoid.” He leaned back in the seat, feet shifting along with the motion. “For what it’s worth, pretty much nobody comes in with their armor perfect. Just because he could afford to get that shit done for him doesn’t mean everyone else does. I don’t think you being in there matters.”

For the first time, Carolina almost saw something _good _in Felix. Either he was nonchalant to a fault, or he simply didn’t care about people using the armory. Maybe he just realized that it was there for a reason and that cutting their men off from it was a bad idea. 

She was off the hook though, at least in Felix’s eyes.

Locus was going to be a different story. Carolina had a feeling that he was _always _going to be a different story. 

Felix turned in his seat to look at her more directly though, his expression serious and dark eyes narrowed. “Look,” He said, volume dropping. “McCallister. We’re doing out best to run a clean operation out here. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of Locus’ way. He probably won’t hurt you, but he’ll make your life hell.” 

Carolina swallowed, unsure whether the warning was genuine. “And what happens if I don’t?”

“You’d be on his short list to do a mission at three in the morning, for one.” Felix mumbled. “Which is one hour from now, by the way.” Felix said, settling back into his seat once more. “I mean, I’m thinking about taking you out for a mission, but it’ll depend.”

“On?”

“Control.” Felix said. “Bullshit that's going on with the New Republic.” 

Carolina blinked. “What do they think you’re doing right now?” She asked, sure to keep her voice down in case they were being listened in on. 

Felix glanced back over his shoulder at where his helmet was sitting on the back seat beside a suspicious looking stain. He cleared his throat, slid down in his seat, then spoke up. “Officially, I’m on a scouting mission. Looking for bodies, shit like that.” 

It struck her as the kind of thing that he _really _wasn’t supposed to be sharing with anyone. The sort of thing which was at the least enough to end up compromising his mission if the wrong person heard. 

“How much downtime do you manage to get with that excuse?”

“Enough.” Felix said. “All I have to be able to do is make a convincing enough report and Kimball doesn’t question me too much. I’ve got her eating out of my hand, you know.” A cocky smirk stretched across his face. “It’s rewarding work, I guess. I mean, I get to do whatever I want and still get paid. The problem is just when I have to take soldiers out with me.” 

Carolina sincerely wished that she had her own helmet there with her. At least that way Epsilon could have been recording the conversation. “And does that happen often?”

“Often enough.” Felix muttered. “’They can’t get better at fighting without me.’ It's such bullshit.” He fiddled with something to the side of his seat and managed to lean his seat back a bit further. “They don’t have to get better when they’re going to die anyways. Total waste of resources, if you ask me.” 

_God this is so fucked up, _Epsilon commented out of nowhere, which only served to draw attention to the void that he’d left behind when he’d jumped out of Carolina’s head. _Do you think this asshole realizes how fucking insane he sounds?_

And no, Carolina didn’t think that Felix realized it. There wasn’t a single chance that Felix even began to comprehend it. Not based on the way that he talked about it, at least. 

She didn’t know what to say though, so Carolina simply nodded. 

It almost seemed like letting Felix run his mouth was an actual strategy for getting information, anyways. The least she could do was see how well she could test that theory. 

“But—” Felix smirked at her. “I think that's enough about me. What about you, McCallister. You’re new to this shithole. What do you think of this godforsaken chunk of rock they call Chorus?” 

“I don’t know.” Carolina mumbled. “I’ve only been on this base and on the raid with you. Can’t really say I’ve seen much of it.” She paused for a second, thinking. “Or its people. Matter of time though, I guess.”

“Yeah, probably.” Felix said distantly. “Have you been issued any gear yet? Aside from gun and armor.” 

“No.”

He hummed, considering. “We’ll get you something sooner than later. Mostly we just need to know what you’re good at and a supply raid isn’t the best way to do it. I mean, come on—” he let out a little laugh. “You know as well as I do that shooting a lock isn’t the same as a moving target.” 

“But knowing _where _to shoot the lock is pretty valuable.” Carolina retorted. It was something that York had told her once, when they’d been going over the less fine points of lock picking. When all else failed, a gun was always an option. It wasn’t a useful one without a certain level of know-how, though. 

“Yeah, it is.” Felix responded, sounding almost distant as he did so. “You know, if it wasn’t fucking one in the morning I’d consider taking you out for a spin. See how you are in the field.” 

_Do you think he realizes that he’s using innuendo, _Epsilon asked, _or do you think he’s like Donut?_

And _that _was a possibility that Carolina didn’t even want to begin to have to consider. One Donut was more than enough in her eyes. Two seemed like they would be near apocalpytically annoying.

If there was anything in the universe that she didn't want to be the case, it was that Felix was like Donut in the regard of innuendo use. 

Carolina simply wasn’t strong enough to endure it. 

She let out a breath, since she needed to say something that didn’t make her seem like she was just as unnerved by Felix’s behavior as she was. He was still several _significant_steps up from how Locus acted, but ultimately that wasn’t saying much. 

On the grand sliding scale of horrible flirts, Carolina would have put him right below York. It was hard to beat Tucker. 

She shook her head. “I would appreciate getting a chance to show my skills in the field.” She said, and it _was _true. Having everyone else stop seeing her as simply “the new girl” was high on her to do list, regardless of whether or not she’d have to spend a lot of her time holding back for the sake of avoiding suspicions. 

Felix looked up at the ceiling, like he was expecting some sort of answer from it. His dark hair flopped back, a little longer than it probably was meant to be. “Yeah, well, we’ll see what happens.” Felix said with a slight shrug. “Because I get the feeling that Locs will be back in the morning with something to do. Control likes to hand down commands through him more than they do me.” 

“Control?”

“Yeah, Control.” Felix waved the question off, completely unaware of what Carolina was _actually _asking. “Assholes that hired me and Locs to carry this whole thing out. The big boss thinks that I’m ‘irresponsible.’” Felix complained, complete with air-quotes. “Be thankful that you don’t have to deal with their shit, McCallister. Every call ends up being a massive fucking headache.” 

Carolina nodded along, filing the information away for later and _hoping _that Epsilon was doing the same. “How long have you guys being doing this anyways?”

“Long enough to need regular supply drops.” Felix said. “I guess they didn’t bother to brief you on this shit before you came down, right?”

Carolina nodded, sure that saying too much would cause trouble later on. The more chances that she gave Felix to suspect her, the worse it would go if he figured it out. “Look,” He mumbled, leaning forward in his seat and craning his neck so that he could look at Carolina directly. “The best thing you can probably do is keep your head down and follow orders. You do well enough, maybe I’ll promote you over that moron Darnoldson.” Felix shrugged. “But for that to happen, you’ve gotta promise me you’ll keep your mouth shut about what we’ve talked about tonight.” 

“Understood, sir.” 

Felix smirked. “I knew I liked you, new girl. I’ll get you out for a mission one of these days. A real one, not just raiding the scraps that have been already left behind.”

Carolina nodded along, still not entirely sure how she was supposed to feel about it. 

He stretched though, and climbed down out of the Warthog, stretching. “I’ve got shit to do.” He said, pointing at a clock that was posted on one of the walls. It read 2:12 am. “You know how it is. Wars to fight, armies to run, generals to fuck with.” 

“Got it.” Carolina said, pulling herself out of the Warthog just the same. She felt another little tug at the back of her mind, like Epsilon was grasping at something with everything that he had left in an attempt to get something. “I guess that I’ll be seeing you around then.” 

“Guess so.” Felix stretched, standing up on the tips of his toes so that he could reach into the back of the warthog and grab his helmet. “Matter of time, really.”

He eyed her as he prepared to pull the helmet on. “Go back to your bunk, new girl.”

Carolina frowned. “I have a name.” 

“Yeah,” Felix snorted. “You do. Go back to your bunk, Carolina McCallister. _That _’s an order.” 

Carolina narrowed her eyes at him and stood up tall. “Yes, _sir _.” She grit out, not the least bit happy about it. 

Felix waved her out of the vehicle bay and Carolina went willingly, beginning the walk back to her barracks only to hear Felix tear out of the building on a Mongoose seconds later. 

Carolina glanced back over her shoulder and watched him speed out of Outpost Echo. 

“Hey, C?” Epsilon prompted her, making Carolina jerk back to attention. “I think I’ve got something.” 

“Please tell me it's good.” Carolina whispered. “Because I didn’t enjoy any of _that _at all.”

“I think it’s good.” Epsilon said. “But you might wanna get your datapad and some privacy.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow. “Really now?”

“Really really.” Epsilon responded. “Think that datapad is still in the armory?”

“Maybe.” Carolina mumbled, turning on her heel and heading back toward the armory in the hopes that she could find the same datapad that Locus had been using earlier. It hadn’t _seemed _like a personal item.

She had no doubts it was her best chance of getting to see what Epsilon had gotten without going straight back to her bunk to potentially wake up Coyote in the process.

* * *

The armory was thankfully empty, and this time Carolina was able to be _sure _of that fact as she closed and locked the door behind her. Knowing that Locus wasn’t even at Outpost Echo anymore went a long way.

Epsilon tugged his way out of her implants and made himself comfortable in a projection unit that was sitting in a box somewhere. Carolina scanned the room for him and saw his little blue avatar flicker into existence. 

“Over here.” He said. “You know, whoever puts this shit away is really not very good at it. Leaving shit still attached to power sources is pretty sloppy.” 

“I’m sure it’s a case of someone that’s not paid enough to care.” Carolina said as she grabbed the projection unit out of the box. She carried it over to the table where she’d worked on her armor earlier and set it down. 

Epsilon stood in the middle of the table. 

“Okay, so,” He started, beginning to pace on the tabletop. “Seems like you did a pretty good job of distracting that asshole. While you had him talking I tried to jump into everything that I could in there. Radios, security systems, you name it.”

“And?”

“That’s why we’re here.” Epsilon said. “Felix mentioned calls from Control, right?”

“He did.” Carolina confirmed. “What about them?”

Epsilon blinked Delta green. “One second.” He said. “Ah, thought so.” His avatar blinked out and Carolina watched a small screen on a table light up. 

She approached it and lifted up the same calibration tablet that Locus had used that morning. “Get to the point, Epsilon.” 

The screen shifted to what looked like an audio recording program. Something began to play on its own, a familiar filtered voice coming out of the little item. 

“_ I would like to hear your status report, Gentlemen. _” The voice that Carolina had learned to associate with Control began to speak. “ _Seeing as it appears you are delaying this project another month. _”

A second bar which was meant to signify sound waves appeared, this time in green to contrast with the cyan shade that had been chosen for Control. 

“_ The Reds and Blues have been located.” _Locus’ voice filtered out, “ _Their separation has proven to be beneficial. Agent Washington and the Reds under the Federal Army’s control have been relocated to Armonia.”_

A third sound bar showed up, this time in vibrant orange. “_ And I’ve got the assholes with the New Republic so tied up that they can’t do shit without my permission first. I can promise you those idiots aren’t going anywhere.”_

There was a pause, one which was more than enough to make the hairs stand up on the back of Carolina’s neck. Like whoever was behind Control’s voice was thinking and trying to find the best way to say whatever it was that they felt that they needed to say. 

“_ Your plan better not fail. _” Control said. “ _I expect to hear from you two again within the week. If the Reds and Blues interfere, kill them. _”

“_ Understood. _” Locus and Felix’s voices echoed in unison. 

_“And Gentlemen, _” Control interjected one last time. _“Do be sure to locate the missing Freelancer and the Epsilon AI. Do not let any potential assets from Project Freelancer slip through your fingers.”_

Locus and Felix didn’t get a chance to say anything before Control’s bar logged off. 

“_ What a fucking asshole,” _Felix muttered, still being recorded. “ _We’ve got this shit handled. _”

“_ We don’t. _” Locus replied, just as the sound recording cut out as the call was closed for real. 

The datapad went dark in Carolina’s hands and she felt her grip tighten in pure _anger _. 

They had the Reds and Blues. They had _Wash. _

When she spoke again, it was through grit teeth. 

“Epsilon, we’re going to make it out to Armonia.” She muttered to him. “We know where the vehicle bay is, we just need to find a way out there.”

“Yeah, and past their defenses.” Epsilon protested. “I want to find them too, but we’ve gotta think this shit over—” He blinked to omega purple and then back to blue. “I can try to keep an eye on their calls, but if they’re moving the Reds and Blues often we can’t really trust what we know.” 

And _that _was true. 

“How recent was that call?” Carolina asked. 

“Recent enough that Felix hadn’t gotten to delete the call data yet.” Epsilon said. “Pretty sure he wiped that shit once he got you out of the vehicle bay. We’ve got a copy, but I don’t know how useful it'll be in the long run.” 

“They're looking for us.” 

“And you’re hiding right under their noses.” Epsilon replied. “As long as we keep a low profile— could do better at that, by the way, they aren’t going to find us. We can do this, we just have to get their trust and shit.” 

Carolina nodded along, still filled with hot rage. “If they’ve hurt any of them—”

“I know.” Epsilon muttered, flickering omega purple a second time. “Me too.” 

“Next chance we get, we’re making a search.” Carolina muttered to her AI partner.

Epsilon let out a simulated sigh. “I’ll start trying to find some information on this Armonia place. Sounds like a Fed stronghold probably. But for now, we need to keep it together.” 

He was right. Carolina _knew _perfectly well that Epsilon was right, but it didn’t make her any less angry to think of it that way. 

“Right.” She muttered. “I’m going to try and get some rest.” Carolina set the datapad back down where it was and began on the way out the door, pausing just long enough to speak up one last time. 

“Make sure there aren’t any traces of this on that thing.” She muttered to Epsilon, and within seconds she saw the datapad light up one last time, presumably as Epsilon deleted any traces that had been left behind of his presence. 

The last thing that they needed was to get tracked down because something as stupid as metadata. 


	6. Pack Animals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I combo chained illnesses and it wasn't fun. Sorry for the wait.

“I heard that the Reds and Blues are idiots.” McTavish said as he leaned against one of the many buildings at Outpost Echo, all too relaxed and not paying any mind to who could have been listening to him. As it was, Carolina was just within earshot of him and the two space pirates that he was talking to.

Epsilon was quick to identify the two of them as Pvt. Junke and Pvt. Rahman, both of Golf Squad. Carolina had seen them only in passing, but after a while it got hard telling some of the lower level recruits apart. So many of them simply wore identical recruit helms. The only additional decoration that either of them wore was a thin stripe of yellow paint on their pauldrons. 

Aside from that, the only way that Carolina was able to so quickly recognize McTavish was because she’d gotten so used to his mannerisms and the way that he’d gesticulate when he spoke. 

“I’ve been hearing that around too.” Either Junke or Rahman said, Carolina unable to distinguish between the two of them. “I heard that a couple New Republic kids went missing last week. Haven’t turned up yet either.” 

“Again?” The other half of the Junke-Rahman pair asked, voice barely hushed. “Shit. Remind me to never get on Felix’s bad side.” 

“This shit is so useless.” Epsilon spoke up, his voice crackling in her radio and the little avatar that he’d placed on her HUD of himself moving as he spoke. “Christ, if I have to hear one more thing about how Locus and Felix have a—”

McTavish laughed, completely unaware of Epsilon’s existence. “You know it’s how he gets out the frustration from not being able to do shit.” 

“_Dead bedroom _.” Junke and Rahman said in unison, but there was a mocking, laughing tone to it. 

As it turned out, it was a common rumor. 

“God fucking dammit. That’s it.” Epsilon muttered. “I’m fucking deleting myself.” 

“Don’t you dare.” Carolina growled at him under her breath. She knew that he wasn’t serious about the threat, but knowing what had happened with Wash it was a joke that failed to be funny. 

The idea to follow the space pirate rumor mill had come when Carolina and Epsilon had realized just how much of a gossip McTavish actually was. The only problem was that all that they heard was nonsense which was barely above the same quality grade as what had been whispered about back during Project Freelancer. 

And _ that _ rumor mill had been downright frustrating. Mostly because it had distracted _ some _agents from performing their duties more than once. It had also been frustrating because it had been primarily perpetuated by people that barely knew any of the actual agents. 

Well, there was that _ and _the fact that Carolina had personally had to shut some rumors down at least twice. And those rumors had always ended coming back with a vengeance, always somehow ten times dumber than they had been previously. On some level it was amazing, but still beyond annoying.

McTavish laughed though. “I can’t believe this is the shit we deal with all because Felix can’t get laid. What a fucking wreck—”

“You can’t _ possibly _ want to listen to this shit.” Coyote’s voice broke into Carolina’s concentration out of nowhere. 

Carolina looked back over her shoulder to find her roommate and saw that Coyote had just approached, and was standing with her helmet balanced on her hip, held into place with her arm. Her dark hair was combed into clean curls on top of her head. She had the worst shit-eating grin that Carolina had seen since 479er. 

Maybe it was a pilot thing.

“Not particularly.” Carolina said. “I’m just…”

“Bored.” Coyote finished for her. “Fucking tell me about it. There’s a reason I choose to do the supply runs.” 

“I thought that all of the ‘hurry up and wait’ business would stop once I was out of the UNSC.” Carolina lamented. “But apparently it’s ten times worse here.” 

“Right?” Coyote frowned. “I miss being self-employed. None of this bullshit when I was in charge of my own missions.” 

Carolina blinked. “Bounty hunter?”

“Something like that.” Coyote smirked. “I’m going to the vehicle bay, if you want to join me. I heard a rumor that one of the Warthogs needs a tune up and I wouldn’t mind the company. It’s better than _ that _ shit at least.” She said, reference to the rumors obvious enough. 

“Do it.” Epsilon urged Carolina, quiet enough that only she could have any of hope of hearing him. “See what we get. Can’t be much worse than that bullshit.” 

“Sounds good.” Carolina said, looking at Coyote directly. “I think just about anything is better than this.” 

Coyote was already on her way to the vehicle bay, so Carolina had to jog along to catch up with her. Within seconds she was back into place at Coyote’s side. “So,” She said, not really sure _ what _ she was supposed to talk about since she and Coyote hadn’t exactly worked too hard to actually break the ice. There was no better time than the present, Carolina supposed. “You do vehicle maintenance and supply runs.” Carolina said, mind already rushing for the number of possibilities that having Coyote as an ally could create. “Seems like pretty specialized work.”

Mostly, she was dead certain that Coyote probably knew the way out to Armonia and back. And Carolina needed that information more than anything.

“Sure do.” Coyote said. “Which is good, because you’d think that someone around here would know how to do an oil change the old fashioned way.” She let the two of them into the vehicle bay without any trouble whatsoever. “But they're all incapable. Men, am I right?”

“Right.” Carolina snorted. She'd changed her car’s oil once before she’d gone into the UNSC. She wasn’t sure if it was something that she could still do, mostly because it had been a long time since she'd driven anything that needed it. She probably could, but the need had never arisen.

And even then, Lopez had always kept the Warthogs that Red Team used up to date and in good repair. Not that it had ever seemed to last much longer than a day at most, though. She was also fairly certain that the robot also chose to keep Blue Team’s vehicles working for good measure. How quickly everything turned up damaged had never had a thing to do with Lopez.

Well, aside from the times where he got frustrated and presumably cut the brake lines on the Warthogs. That had happened more than once while Carolina had been with the Reds and Blues.

In that moment, it dawned on Carolina that she didn’t even know whether or not Lopez was still running or not. It was entirely possible that he’d been dismantled when the Reds and Blues were captured. 

Carolina _ hoped _ that weird Spanish-speaking robot was out there somewhere. He didn’t deserve to be dismantled.

Coyote let out a low whistle as she inspected the vehicle bay. “Assholes took all the Mongeese again.” She muttered under her breath. “Fucking typical.” 

And _ that _ at least answered a couple of the questions that Carolina had about the contents of the vehicle bay. They had two Mongeese, and Locus and Felix always took them before anyone else could get use either of them. Almost like they were personal vehicles instead of ones that belonged to their full forces. 

“Is that normal?”

“Sad to say it, but yes.” Coyote said as she walked over the wall of keys. “You’ll help me out with some stuff if I need it, right?”

“Sure.” Carolina said, and that _ was _ true. “Depending on what it is.” 

Coyote smirked and pulled a pair of keys down off of the wall. “We’ll see what we need.” She said as she led the way over to the Warthogs. “The truth is that most of these assholes barely know how to drive on a good day and while getting supplies is my _ job _, getting my hands on military-grade vehicle parts isn’t exactly easy. More of a pain in the ass than anything else, really.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow and leaned against one of the many Warthogs that filled the vehicle bay. “And?”

“I didn’t say that I _ can’t _do it.” Coyote said, “You know, to be perfectly clear. I just said it’s a pain in the ass. Which it is.” 

Carolina watched as Coyote began to strip out of her armor and down into just her body suit. Presumably so that she could slide her way under a Warthog without worrying about scraping metal against the floor. She watched as Coyote dropped onto the floor and slid under the vehicle to try and see what was going on with it. 

Epsilon tugged his way away from Carolina’s implants and jumped into Coyote’s helmet to try and see what he could find there. The absence almost left her feeling cold.

“You know,” Carolina commented, crossing her arms over her chest. “You make it sound like getting supplies is less getting supplies and more like—”

“Let me guess?” Coyote shouted from under the Warthog. “Smuggling, right?”

It sounded like it was a regular enough question that Coyote actually looked forward to hearing it. 

“Yeah.” Carolina squinted in Coyote’s direction. “_ Smuggling _.” 

Coyote squirmed a little bit under the Warthog, and then pulled herself out from under it. “Yeah, when I mentioned being self-employed, that’s what I was referring to. Bounty hunting is easy. Smuggling takes _ talent, _ and I’ve got talent pouring out my ass.” 

Carolina blinked. “You’re a smuggler.”

“I _ was _ a smuggler.” Coyote said. “Currently. It’s kind of hard to say since there’s so much of smuggling and working for the mercs that just overlaps.” She made her way between the Warthogs over to the wall where a number of tools had been stored and paused a few steps away from it, scanning for whatever she needed. “Between you and me, I miss smuggling.” 

“Because you were self employed?”

“And because I didn’t need a roommate.” Coyote joked as she pulled down a wrench. She shot Carolina the most shit-eating smirk Carolina had seen all day. “Full offense intended.”

“None taken.” Carolina sighed. “I’m pretty sure that nobody _ actually _wants to have a roommate. At best it’s a way for people to get lower rent I find.” 

Coyote nodded along, seeming actually relaxed. Relaxed in a way that Carolina wasn’t used to seeing when they were in the barrack or out on a mission. Like she was actually at home in the vehicle bay. “I mean, there's that.” She said. “Mostly,” She explained as she began to search through some boxes for something. “Smuggling is a _ great _job for an adrenaline junkie.” 

“Can’t say I’ve ever thought of it that way.”

Coyote shrugged as she began back over toward the Warthog, apparently having found what she was looking for. “Oh yeah,” She said as she popped the hood and took the first look at what was going on in the engine. “Passing through checkpoints without people noticing what sort of cargo you’re carrying? It’s fun.” 

_ Yeah, _ Epsilon commented from the back of Carolina’s mind. _ Depends on the type of cargo I bet. I have a feeling this chick wasn’t smuggling cheese and onions. _

Carolina glanced back over her shoulder at the spot where Coyote’s gear had been abandoned, and she wondered for a moment. “What kind of cargo did you deal with anyways?” 

Coyote froze up and shot Carolina a look. “Please tell me you haven’t talked with McTavish about this.” 

“Um,” Carolina was taken aback. What could McTavish have to do with it? “No?”

Coyote sighed. “He tends to mislead people a lot. I want to be sure that if I tell you, you’ll believe me.” 

_ This doesn’t sound fucking good, C. _ Epsilon sounded alarmed, and Carolina could practically picture him changing colors as he spoke. _ I swear to god, if we have to start forming a hitlist of your co-workers, I don’t know if I want to do this job anymore. _

“What did you carry?” Carolina asked, dropping her volume just to be sure that the two of them weren’t getting overheard. 

“Before?” Coyote was hesitant, lips pursed and frustration clear on her face. “People. These days I’m more of a gun runner.” She rambled on, almost like she was trying to distract Carolina from what she’d just said.

“People?”

“Yeah.” Coyote muttered. “People.” 

_ That’s it. _ Epsilon said. _ I’m writing a fucking hitlist. _

It wasn’t a lie. A basic text document appeared on Carolina’s HUD, featuring the names Locus, Felix, and Coyote at the top under a header which simply read _ Hit List. _ Carolina couldn’t exactly disagree with Epsilon’s sentiment.

Coyote slammed the Warthog’s hood shut, apparently having not found anything. “Yeah, that's about the response people usually give.” She began to explain herself. “It’s not what you think it is. Think of what I did as more of a…. Immigration service. Not what you’re probably thinking of. I wouldn’t do that shit.” 

All at once, some things about Coyote were beginning to come together in Carolina’s mind. Mostly, why she’d end up working for people like Locus and Felix. 

“So the code name…” Carolina began. “It’s literal, isn’t it?”

“No, I’m not named after a dog if that’s what you’re asking.” Coyote laughed quietly. “But yeah, it is. And since it keeps me a little safer to go by that name, I’m gonna use it until the day that I die. I can live with most people not getting what the name means if it keeps me safe.” 

Carolina glanced at the entrance to the vehicle bay, thousands of questions forming in her mind all at once. There was something missing, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. There had to be _ something, _ if there wasn’t, then she didn’t know whether or not she could actually trust her roommate there. 

“So how do you justify—” Carolina gestured vaguely to the rest of the vehicle bay. “All of this? The job, I mean.” 

Coyote sighed. “I learned to turn my brain off to it. The sick truth is that no matter how horrible you are, you can’t justify it. I was out of resources and took a job when I was fresh out of prison. I’d met Locus once back when we were in the UNSC. He was looking for help with something, and I took it. Then never really fell off of his radar after.” She hesitated. “I mean, there are a few here that might actually enjoy it. Most of us? It’s one hell of a paycheck.”

_ Wait, shit _. Epsilon muttered and Carolina saw the little red recording icon show up in the corner of her HUD. 

So Epsilon thought that something important was about to come up, then.

Interesting. 

“You knew him in the UNSC?” Whether it was more surprising than Coyote smuggling people, Carolina wasn’t sure of. It was certainly something that they could use, if nothing else. How they’d use it, Carolina didn’t actually know.

Coyote shrugged. “We were in Boot camp together. Got shipped our separate ways, never saw him again until long after. He and Felix needed passage into one of the outer colonies and I had a ship. Bounty hunting shit.” Coyote paused, like she’d just realized that she didn’t actually know _ anything _about Carolina. “You were on the bounty circuit when they got you, right? That’s how most of us ended up here.”

“Yeah.” Carolina said. Not technically incorrect. In theory what she was doing was quite similar to chasing a bounty, even if there wasn’t an official bounty out for either Locus or Felix. “I needed a bigger paycheck too, for what it’s worth.” She explained herself with a slight shrug. “And the lack of regular work—”

“Tell me about it.” Coyote said, dropping down onto the floor so that she could slide back under the Warthog again. “You know,” She shouted from under the vehicle. “It’s a real shame that we've been cooped up here. Outpost Echo is _ literally _ the single most boring one out here.” 

Carolina blinked. “How many outposts are there?”

“Ten, I think.” Coyote responded. “Last I heard, at least. But they keep some of them on rotation. From what I know they like to move into ruined bases from time to time since sometimes better systems get left behind. Could be more now.” 

Carolina nodded along. 

“You know,” Coyote muttered. “You ask a lot of questions you _ should _already know the answers to. Were you really a last second recruit?”

“I was late for the briefing.” Carolina laughed. It was yet another half-truth, but far from being the worst one that she’d shared that day. “And yet they still took me. Must be getting desperate.” 

Coyote snorted. “I’m pretty sure they stopped briefing people years ago. I know I barely got shit when I flew down. Actually—” She paused, brow furrowing in frustration. “I think I only got a proper briefing because Locus already knew me from before. And… have you had one of his briefings yet? Because the guy takes ‘need to know’ to a fucking extreme.” 

“Maybe squad members are expected to give briefings?” Carolina asked. “If they’re really skipping out on them.” 

“Might be.” Coyote tossed the pair of keys out from under the Warthog. “Can you wake her up? I think I found what these idiots did to it.” 

Carolina reached down and picked up the keys on the simplistic plastic key chain. When she glanced down at it she saw that the code 24-S had been scrawled onto it in relatively messy marker. She climbed up into the driver’s seat and made herself comfortable. The Warthog’s engine purred to life with a turn of the key. 

“If you move it out of neutral,” Coyote shouted over the rumble of the engine, “I will come back from the dead and I will kill you myself!” 

“Noted!” Carolina shouted back and waited for Coyote to give any other commands. 

At once, another question came to Carolina’s mind. One which was _ far _less weird to ask about. And was probably also a relatively common question for people to ask. “So how did you guys end up with a Warthog with a standard transmission?” 

Coyote laughed loudly from under the Warthog. “How the fuck did you find about that piece of shit?”

“Felix.”

“_Felix?” _ Coyote nearly shouted. “What the hell were you doing out here with _ Felix? _ Were you _ alone? _ You know what that asshole does in here, right? _ ” _

It was in that moment that Carolina realized that she’d just made a grave mistake. One which she was surely never going to be able to live down, not until the day that she died. 

“Um,” Carolina blinked, not really sure what to say anymore. There wasn’t anything to say that wouldn’t end up sounding weird. God, what had she just fucking done? “Yeah. I wasn’t intending to come out here to see him, but Felix found me and dragged me off to spend time with him.” 

Coyote was quiet for a moment. “_ Please _tell me that you didn’t add to the stain collection in that thing. Because it’s fucking disgusting.” 

“We didn’t.” Carolina said. “We just talked. I was just curious about the Warthog.” 

“It’s a genuine goddamn mystery.” Coyote answered. “I didn’t even know that they made them in that way.” She paused for a long moment. “Actually, someone might have reverse-engineered it as a joke and intentionally bricked the damn thing. I don’t know if it works or not. Never bothered to try.” 

_ I’m going to try and drive it, _ Epsilon told Carolina, seeming a little too confident on the matter. _ Watch me _. 

Carolina let out a sigh though. “And I’m guessing you guys can’t reliably recycle the parts?”

“Not without risking fucking things up.” Coyote answered. “It’s _ different _. I have no interest in accidentally converting more of those things to be the same way. Having one bricked Warthog is bad enough. Last thing we need is more.” 

Carolina sat still in her seat though, waiting it out so that she could figure out what Coyote wanted next. The last thing that she wanted was to accidentally run over her roommate. “That makes sense to me.” 

The room lapsed into a silence for a bit, the only sound being the rumble of the Warthog’s engine, which had to be turned off anyways within a few minutes. Carolina waited it out for Coyote to say something, but it didn’t come for another half hour when Coyote unceremoniously told her to start the Warthog again and put it into neutral. 

Carolina did as instructed and Coyote slid out from underneath it. Within seconds, she joined Carolina in the passenger’s seat. Motor oil was smeared onto her cheekbone, an odd anti-highlight that made Coyote’s features seem even more severe. 

“You know how to drive one of these things?” Coyote asked, relaxing back into the seat. 

“Yeah.” Carolina said, putting the vehicle into drive without any question. “Where are we headed?”

“We’re doing the hills.” Coyote explained nonchalantly. “Take the road out of the west side of camp and follow it. I’ll tell you when to turn off to be sure that this thing can handle a climb or two.” 

Carolina nodded along and pushed forward. Epsilon rushed back into her helmet, apparently having been dragged out of his own range by the Warthog going into motion. When they pulled out, Carolina saw that there were still a few soldiers standing out in the open. None of them paid the Warthog any attention though, all far more occupied with their own conversations than anything else. 

Outpost Echo had no signs that marked the road in and out of it. In fact, if someone didn’t know that it was there already, it wouldn’t have been able to be found at all. The camp was always certain to keep noise to a minimum and smoke never rose from it. Wherever they were in relation to everything else on Chorus was simply kept deliberately obscured.

It was obscured to the point where Carolina wasn’t _ entirely _ certain she’d be able to point out where Outpost Echo was on a map. 

Coyote seemed pleased to be out of the camp for _ any _ reason though. 

Admittedly, Carolina had been starting to feel pretty cramped being there herself. Not getting to do anything was killing her investigation, even if she was occasionally able to scrounge up useful scraps of information to use here and there. She couldn’t figure out what was going on with her friends if she was stuck at Outpost Echo. She couldn’t help stop the war on Chorus if she was stuck at Outpost Echo. She couldn’t bring justice if she was stuck at Outpost Echo. 

She needed at least _ something. _

Coyote glanced over at her. “You should lose the helmet.” She said, completely relaxed. “Feel the wind in your hair.” 

“I’m _ driving.” _

Coyote sat up straight and edged her way over toward Carolina. “Want me to help with that?”

“Um—” Carolina blinked, not immediately sure how she was supposed to respond. She glanced over at Coyote, and felt Epsilon sink down into her nerves to make sure that she didn’t end up crashing then. “What?”

Coyote scooted in closer. “I’m releasing your helmet now,” She instructed quietly. “So keep your eyes on the road, McCallister. I wouldn’t want to have to fix this Warthog up again because you crashed.” 

Carolina swallowed and nodded, snapping her attention back to the road. Coyote’s hands fiddled with the edges of Carolina’s helmet. Within seconds Carolina felt it release and Coyote lifting the helmet off of her head. The helmet ended up set down between the two of them on the center console between their seats. 

It took everything that Carolina had to not turn bright red in a blush. 

But admittedly, the wind in her hair did feel pretty nice. It had certainly been a while since she’d last gotten to feel it, or even relax enough to consider it.

Carolina swallowed and glanced back over at Coyote. “So where are we heading?”

“There’s a right we can take close to here.” Coyote said, stretching out and making herself comfortable. “It’ll take us up onto the hills. Odds are nobody will be out there anyways so if we want to just have some fun we can.” She smiled over at Carolina. “But there’s no good radio stations to listen in on, unless you want to listen to the idiots back at the Outpost talk.” 

Carolina frowned at the suggestion. Coyote had been a great escape from all of that. She didn’t exactly look forward to hearing it again just yet. 

“No thanks.”

Carolina’s response won a little laugh out of Coyote. “Okay, there it is.” She leaned forward and pointed at one of the roads. Carolina turned off onto it and soon the Warthog’s engine began to strain under the effort of the climb. Coyote seemed like she was listening, but also didn’t seem entirely invested in the entire matter. More like she was just listening for a weird rattle. 

The Warthog took the climb easily enough though. 

“So, Carolina’s your name, right?” Coyote asked out of nowhere. 

“Yeah.” Carolina replied, feeling a weird tension forming in her belly that told her that if she ended up needing to fight to protect her identity, she would. She needed to be able to. “And your name is Coyote.” 

Coyote snorted. “It’s a code name.” She reiterated, just like earlier. “An _ earned _one. No code names for you?”

“Never felt the need for one.” Carolina lied. The fact that she was there using code names layered over code names wasn’t something that Coyote strictly needed to know. “Think that's going to get me into trouble?”

“Nah.” Coyote stretched. “Only if the Mercs get caught, and they’ve got some powerful people keeping this shit under wraps.” She said quietly. “Or if you buy the farm. Which isn’t likely, since we don’t exactly run into fights against the locals with them knowing about it until it’s already happened.” 

Carolina nodded along. “Snipers?”

“Cloaking units, snipers.” Coyote shrugged. “You know your way around a rifle?”

“I do.” 

Coyote grinned. “And to think I was thinking that I was going to have to teach the new girl how to handle something with a high caliber. I was almost excited for a second there.” 

_ Okay, so that was definitely flirting. _ Epsilon commented, like he was considering whether or not there was something that he could say or do. Before it had been him trying to threaten to disable Locus’ cameras. Carolina _ strongly _ suspected that Epsilon was cooking up something for Felix too. 

Whether or not he’d do something for Coyote, Carolina wasn’t sure. She hoped not.

“I think that I can handle myself.” Carolina laughed, actually relaxing a little bit as she drove. The Warthog’s engines had turned into mere background noise in her mind, far from able to bother her as she simply enjoyed herself out on the hills. “Hate to disappoint you.” 

Coyote snorted. “Just to be clear,” she said. “I was only _ partially _ joking. You will need to know how to snipe if you’re going to survive here.” 

“I know how.” Carolina retorted. It may have been a while since the need for her to do so had last arisen, but it wasn’t as though she was completely incapable. Back in Freelancer there had always been talented snipers at her back so she’d never needed to worry about it. Even still, she could fill that role in a pinch if the need for it arose.

Coyote nodded along. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what they all say.” Her voice drifted off for a moment in thought. “About a year ago there was this new kid. I don’t remember their name, but I think it was their first day on a mission, and it was also their first day handling a sniper rifle.” 

“And?”

“One shot and the kid shattered their collarbone. Couldn’t handle the recoil.” Coyote shrugged. “Don’t know what happened to them after that but I’ve got my theories.” 

Based on all of the little _ rumors _ that Carolina had heard, she was pretty sure she knew what Coyote was thinking. 

Either way, breaking a collarbone due to recoil wasn’t a fun time.

Carolina shrugged. “You’ll have to take my word for it, but I’ve never broken any bones on recoil.” She leaned back in her seat. “I hate to disappoint you.” 

Coyote pointed at a road without saying a word, and Carolina was sure to turn onto it. It brought them down around the backs of the hills and into valleys that Carolina had only passed through while making the decision to infiltrate Outpost Echo in the first place. It was bumpy. Both of the women in the Warthog had to adjust how they were sitting to ensure that neither of them were too badly jostled during the ride. 

“Well,” Coyote said. “I’m sure your talents will come to light soon enough. Not that we ever get to use them.” 

“You get to use yours.”

“Kind of.” Coyote shrugged. “It’s not really the same.” 

And that was probably true, Carolina thought as she just relaxed back into driving. “If you ever decide you need a co-pilot on a trip out, I might be willing you know.”

Coyote smirked. “You sure you want to say that, new girl?” She teased. “All sorts of _ horrible _things happen when I go out on supply runs. You really don’t want to know the horrors of hot water and a soft bed.” 

“I could kill for a hot shower.” Carolina responded, and _ god _ was it the truth.

Them having showers at Outpost Echo didn’t mean that the water was warm. In fact, it just seemed to be whatever they could source discreetly without too much attention paid to heating it. If it were colder it would have been a real problem. As things were, it somehow wasn’t. 

But Carolina still missed hot showers. The Mother of Invention always had hot showers, even if they were on unforgivingly short timers. 

Coyote sighed. “Kill enough locals and you can probably get one. Who goes with me on runs isn’t exactly my call. Think of it as a reward for good behavior.” 

“Noted.” Carolina replied. 

Getting off planet was at least a chance to get help. That wasn’t something that Carolina really intended to let slip through her fingers if the chance would arise. All she had to do was get through and blow the whistle. Then aid would head to Chorus. 

_ Or _ , Carolina thought sadly, _ she’d be executed in cold blood just like CT had been. _

CT, who could have saved them all.

Bitter sadness settled in her stomach. 

Just like that, all of the willpower that Carolina had had to play around and relax and talk with Coyote faded in an instant. 

It was entirely possible, Carolina realized, that infiltrating the space pirate’s ranks was so risky that it might have even began to border on being stupid. 

It was a bitter pill to swallow. 

* * *

When Carolina pulled on her helmet hours later in the hopes of getting some peace and quiet, she found that Epsilon had left her a gift, conveniently lifted from the Warthog’s GPS systems. 

It was a map of Chorus, with a marker placed on it which appeared to be linked to Carolina's helmet. 

Also on the helmet were several known Outposts, a couple of Federal Army and New Republic bases, and with the largest icon on the map, was Armonia. 

He’d gotten her the chance that she needed. 

She could only hope that the opportunity to act on it would come sooner than later.


	7. Practical Exams

Carolina was awoken by the sound of a siren going off of all the things. It blared loudly enough that sleeping through it would have been nearly impossible, and so just about  _ everyone _ at Outpost Echo was successfully roused from their beds. 

It had been nearly three days since her drive with Coyote, and those near three days had been spent carefully planning an expedition to Armonia so that she could find Wash, along with whoever he had with him there. 

It was only  _ nearly _ three days, because a quick glance at her personal datapad informed Carolina that it was 2:51 in the morning, which was a completely reasonable time for everyone to be up and out of their beds.

Granted, the whole base would have been getting up soon anyways, but still it was far too early. Not that any of it mattered when sirens were being used to wake all of them up. 

Coyote shot out of bed without questioning it though, immediately pulling on her armor like if she didn’t do it quick enough she’d end up dead. Carolina climbed out of bed and did the same, since it didn’t seem that there was anything else that she  _ could _ do. 

“What the hell is going on?”

“ _ That's _ a mission wake up.” Coyote explained to her, a little out of breath. “It means we have fifteen minutes to be suited up, armed, and ready to leave and do whatever we’re told.” She began to pull on her thigh armor. “it also means that Locus is guaranteed to be leading the mission. Felix doesn’t usually pull this shit.” 

_ Shit. _

Carolina nodded and dressed before she grabbed her rifle and pistol on the way out the door. Epsilon was in the process of quick booting all of her enhancements in case they ended up being needed. Carolina sincerely hoped that they wouldn’t, but as things were she couldn’t be too sure. 

She  _ never _ could be too sure anymore.

She and Coyote jogged out into the open yard and fell into place, with Darnoldson and McTavish joining them seconds later. All four of them stood military alert and waited for any sign that Locus was  _ actually _ there. 

He materialized out of nothing in front of the rows of soldiers. People were still sprinting out of barracks, and so he paid them no mind. 

Either way, he was tall. Intimidating.  _ Commanding. _

Locus looked at Darnoldson and the three of them behind him, and nodded to them. Darnoldson followed close behind Locus, while Carolina, Coyote, and McTavish followed close behind their team leader. The understanding that they’d just been selected for a mission was easy enough to come it.

They came to a dead stop mere feet away from the armory. 

“You all have cloaking units?” Locus grumbled the question out, sounding at least mostly on-edge.

“Yes, sir.” Darnoldson announced quickly. 

“Good.” Locus muttered, continuing on his way toward the vehicle bay, just the same way as Felix had lead them merely a week before. Locus said nothing else to them, he simply made a beeline for a Mongoose ( _ his Mongoose, Carolina recognized,) _ and mounted it. He gave them just enough time to load into a Warthog before he was driving and leading the way towards something. 

Coyote and Carolina sat in the back of the Warthog, since they’d been the front on the last expedition with Felix. 

Coyote leaned over toward Carolina. “The big guy likesFrequency 51-Tango.” She mumbled, just loud enough that Carolina could hear it. “Save yourself some grief and connect now.”

Carolina accepted the cue and before she could even start to do it manually, Epsilon had tuned her radio onto the correct frequency. She was met with an immediate banner written in bright red which  _ demanded _ radio silence on her HUD. 

She already had a feeling that Locus was  _ very _ different from Felix in the field. 

Probably in just about every other way as well, if she had to guess.

And still they didn’t have any idea as to what they were doing or where they were going. 

With no better option, Carolina leaned back into her seat, checked that her rifle was ready one last time, and waited. 

The answer came two and a half  _ hours _ into the drive. 

“Your briefing begins now.” Locus all but  _ growled  _ through Carolina’s radio. “A ship landed on Chorus 20 miles from here. Your assignment is to raid it for supplies before either of the local armies can access it.” He took a breath. “Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir.” All four of them echoed in unison. 

“You have orders to kill on sight.” Locus added on. “Radio silence until we arrive. Await further instruction.” 

And just like that, the line once again went dead, leaving all of them with nothing to do but wait. 

On one hand, as far as briefings given on the road went it was absolutely pitiful. On the other, it was succinct enough that Carolina didn’t  _ really _ have any extra questions to ask. In hindsight, Locus very well may have preferred it that way.

Epsilon pulled up the map that he’d gotten her on her HUD and Carolina watched as they drove closer and closer to what was marked as a New Republic base. That at least explained the reason for the hurry, and why Locus had taken the first squad that had shown up fully-assembled. 

They were on a time crunch, even if he wasn’t saying it out loud. 

Smoke rising up on the horizon was the first sign that they were actually close to what they were looking for. Locus led them into the trees and parked there, before dismounting his Mongoose. He waited long enough for the rest of them to do the same, held up a hand as an order to stay in position until he signaled for them to follow, and then began the walk out into the open. 

The rest of the squad followed close behind, and when the reached the ship in question Carolina wasn’t quite sure what she'd been expecting. 

It was a Condor, one that looked like it had been in fairly good repair before it had been torn apart by the tractor beams upon entering Chorus’ orbit. 

She didn’t know how long it had been there, smoldering in its own wreckage. 

_ Want me to scan for survivors? _ Epsilon asked, and Carolina shook her head as subtly as she could manage. She didn’t  _ want  _ to know if there were survivors. If there were survivors, it would only be harder in a few minutes when the time came to dispose of them. 

It would happen. 

She knew it would happen. 

The short briefing that Locus had given had been  _ abundantly _ clear on that point.

Locus reached the wreckage, the slight shimmer of his cloaking the only indicator of his presence. All at once the cloaking dropped and he raised an arm, beckoning the rest of them forward so that they could pick through the mess for anything of use. 

As commanded, nobody said so much as a word. 

When Carolina got in close she saw that the Condor’s identification number was still there on the side, bright blue that tried its best to distinguish itself from the rest of the metal. 

_ The Providence  _ had been ripped out of the sky in a particularly violent manner. 

Locus was the first one to break radio silence. 

“Clear the wreckage of supplies.” He instructed. “If any of you are able to disable its communications systems, you should do so.” The mercenary leaned in close to the wreckage, careful to keep enough of a distance so that he couldn’t risk injury. “It appears that nobody’s been here yet.” 

“So they’ll be here soon then.” Darnoldson spoke up, his voice sounding a little different when it didn’t come filtered through his helmet. “We should be able to handle that.” 

“Yes.” Locus confirmed. “Any supplies you find are to be taken back to your outpost.” 

Carolina nodded and drew in close to the wreck. When she peered in she saw the single outline of a body, slumped forward against the ship’s controls. The body wasn’t moving, no sign of air, and when Epsilon ran his bioscan on it, thankfully nothing appeared to indicate that they were alive. 

If Carolina had to guess, they would have died on impact. Whatever purpose they’d come to Chorus with had been lost entirely. 

Dying on impact was probably a mercy in the long run, Carolina realized. If they hadn’t died on impact, they would have only ended up getting executed. 

“Pilot’s dead, sir.” Carolina said, glancing back at Locus. “Cockpit looks empty.” 

“Destroy the comms.” He growled back at her, clearly disinterested in what Carolina had to say. 

She didn’t need to be told twice.

Epsilon took the chance to jump into the ship’s onboard computers while they were still working with what low power systems they had. 

_ I’m going to just try and copy everything I can. _ He said.  _ Try to buy me some time. Pull some metal apart or something, just give me a minute. _

That, Carolina could do. 

Her stomach twisted when she saw the body again, but Carolina reached in and tried to tug the ship’s pilot out of the way so that she could have a little more room to work. In the end, all that she needed to do was put a few well-placed rounds into the communicators and she’d be golden. 

But needing room was  _ surely _ a good enough reason to take her time. 

After all, any  _ seasoned _ veteran would know the risks of recoil and firing a gun in an enclosed space.

There wasn’t much give to the metal, and Carolina could feel a slight headache beginning to form as Epsilon worked. Not bad enough that she wouldn’t be able to handle it, but bad enough that she’d certainly end up regretting it later on. 

The sooner he was done, the better. 

As Carolina tugged and maneuvered the metal of the ship’s hull, she found herself growing increasingly aware of Locus' presence at her back. 

She already knew that he was suspicious of her. She couldn’t give him any extra reasons to feel that way. 

He stood there though, silent and foreboding and Carolina was reminded all too strongly of their run in at the armory. He’d had her absolutely cornered at the time. Bad enough that she was still trying to shake the incident from her mind a full week later. 

“Is there a problem, soldier?” Locus asked, voice still in its typical low growl. It sent shivers up Carolina’s spine and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end. 

“I’m just trying to be sure I’ve got everything, sir.” Carolina replied, all while silently  _ begging _ Epsilon to hurry up so that she could destroy the comms. “I don’t want to miss anything. Or deal with recoil.”

Locus was silent, but he still didn’t move. Almost like he was giving a tacit approval. Either that or Epsilon was about to start trying to find ways to disable Locus’ helmet cams again. 

_ Fne, I’m done _ . Epsilon told Carolina as he zipped back to her so that he could nestle himself back into her mind. Carolina took a deep breath, checked over the cockpit one last time, and reached for her pistol so that she could eliminate the problem. 

She leveled the gun on the comm system. 

Locus  _ still _ didn’t move. 

He almost seemed fascinated by what she was doing. 

God, she didn’t have the time or energy for whatever was going on in his head. Perhaps it was something that she could bring up with Coyote and see whether or not Locus was acting odd or not. But then Carolina  _ also _ wasn’t sure if she’d want to know whether or not he was acting abnormally because then it would  _ mean _ something. 

Cryptic motherfucker had to be a thorn in her side.

Carolina fired two more rounds while she was still inside of the cockpit for good measure, just to be certain that Locus believed her cover. 

He seemed satisfied though, with the way that it was only then that Locus chose to slink off and give Carolina space again. 

She sighed, pulled herself out of the ship, and stood up and stretched. 

Darnoldson and McTavish were working together to pull open what had once been the ship’s cargo hold door. Coyote, by contrast, was walking around the ship slowly, almost like she was stalking her prey. More accurately, Coyote was probably searching for something that could be salvaged. Not that Carolina was  _ entirely _ certain that ship parts were interchangeable. 

Even if they were, Carolina wasn’t certain that there were enough airships that they would  _ need _ the extra parts. 

Come to think of it, she didn’t know of the merc forces having  _ any _ Condors at their disposal. She’d only ever seen Pelicans.

Carolina sighed though, and she went to join Darnoldson and McTavish because at least that way it could look like she was doing  _ something _ which helped the final mission. Locus didn’t spare her a second glanced after that, but he did wander far enough from the camp that Carolina was pretty sure he was calling someone. 

_ Epsilon _ . Carolina tried to prod her partner to doing something. 

_ Firewalls, _ Epsilon responded.  _ Not trying it. Last thing I want is to get deleted. _

And it was a fair point. It didn’t make Carolina feel any less frustrated by the situation though. If she could just listen in or get Epsilon recording, they’d have  _ something. _ Instead all she had was two missions specifically designed to deprive the local population of supplies under her belt. 

The door came open with a great heave on the parts of Carolina, McTavish, and Darnoldson. It nearly ripped off of the ship due to the sheer amount of pressure that had to be applied to get it to even budge. 

The three of them took a step back, just in time for Locus to slide in front and see what was inside. 

What they found was a few crates of supplies, and three soldiers that had probably been killed on impact as well. None of them were wearing helmets, so if Carolina had to guess they died when the oxygen support systems went down. Most of them were just about completely charred to a crisp. 

“Move on.” Locus said after a moment. 

The three of them took the order. Carolina watched as Darnoldson and McTavish both began to pull the two crates of supplies out of the Condor. 

_ I’m guessing these guys were trying to bring help, _ Epsilon told Carolina, still tucked away safe in the back of her mind. “What a fucking mess.” 

And it  _ was _ a fucking mess. A massive fucking mess that there was no actual chance of clearing up anytime soon. 

The three supply crates were loaded into the back of the Warthog, while Coyote seemed to give up on the search for salvageable parts. 

Locus seemed to be about to give them some sort of new instruction when a sound interrupted. 

Specifically, the sound of a Warthog approaching as the dirt shifted and twigs snapped under its tires. 

Locus was the first to cloak himself, followed closely after by the rest of the party. 

Carolina, however, was presented with a banner on her HUD that proclaimed an equipment failure. 

“Epsilon!” She hissed at the AI as she ducked behind the Condor. The heat rolled off of the burning vehicle, and it left her glad that she had her armor to protect her. If she hadn’t, she was pretty sure that she would have started to resemble the men that had been in the cargo hold. 

_ I’m trying! _

The equipment failure banner flashed again. Epsilon swore and Carolina felt her stomach drop at the sight of the notification that her chameleon unit was activating. It was better than nothing, but still not at all ideal. 

Her cover was as good as blown. Carolina was certain of it. All it took was one person noticing that she was running non-standard equipment and she was done for.

She bowed her head and tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible. Her three teammates and Locus were all immobile, all of them taking advantage of the cloaking units that they had installed in their armor. 

The Warthog pulled into view, and Carolina craned her neck to get a view of what it had brought with it. 

It was a small squad of New Republic armor, all in their worn, mismatched drab armor. 

“Shit,” The first one said, stunned by the wreckage. “What the—” 

“This doesn’t seem right.” Another said, her high-pitched voice nearly managing to be grating. “I mean, it looks like someone’s—”

“Been here.” The driver spoke up, like a horrible realization was dawning on him. “Shit!” He shouted a moment later. “Feds!” 

Carolina watched as all of the New Republic soldiers began to scramble, all of them seeming to feel the same newfound panic at the realization that they were not alone. The first one was already doing their best to turn around in the seat of the Warthog to get a gun. 

A shot rang out, and the young soldier slumped forward against the pack that was in front of them. Carolina’s head whipped around and she saw Locus standing there, not far off from her at all, the only sign that it  _ was _ him the tale tell shimmer of his armor. 

He’d just killed the kid. No hesitation whatsoever.

_ Fuck _ .

One of the New Republic soldiers let out a panicked sort of scream, and looked like they were determined to break out and try and escape.

They didn’t get far at all when another member of Carolina’s squad opened fire. Epsilon activated her trackers and flashed an indication on where he thought the shot had come from. When Carolina put it together in her mind, she was sure that it had been McTavish. 

The four New Republic soldiers fell one by one, and when they were done Carolina watched as Locus uncloaked himself and approached each of the bodies. He stared down at one of them and then glanced back over his shoulder at the rest of them. 

“Remove any of their footage.” He instructed. “We were never here.” 

Carolina stood up straight from behind the wreckage, clutching her rifle tight since she was dead certain that if she didn’t someone would  _ notice _ that she hadn’t taken part in the killings. Nobody said anything though. All that happened was that any cloaking people had was dropped, and they went ahead to follow orders. 

So Carolina did the same, letting her armor dye itself back to the same shade of steel grey that it had been when she’d gotten there. 

If anyone had noticed that she  _ hadn’t _ used a cloaking unit, Carolina didn’t actually know. 

If they had, Carolina was certain she'd hear about it sooner than later. She just hoped that she didn’t hear about it from Locus, specifically. 

With the conflict over the whole team went about clearing up what was left. The New Republic soldiers were left on the site where they’d each been executed, all with data wiped from their helms. If anyone found them, they would simply determine that the ones to kill them had been either members of the Federal Army, or Locus himself— two things which were in the eyes of the people of Chorus, one and the same. 

Minutes later, the drive back to Outpost Echo began, just as quiet and uninteresting as the first ride there had been. 

* * *

Three hours after arriving back at Outpost Echo, Carolina was summoned out of the bunker by Locus himself. He stood there in his armor, quiet and intimidating as he waited for Carolina to come out. 

He’d come in person. It couldn’t have possibly been a good thing, of that Carolina was certain. Why else would Locus have come to find her at all? The only reason she could think of was that her cover was permanently  _ blown _ .

She wasn’t in armor. It had come off nearly as soon as they’d arrived back at Outpost Echo and had gone through Locus’ (blessedly brief) de-briefing. Carolina simply did the only thing that she could do— she swallowed her courage and left the barrack that she shared with her team to join the mercenary. 

Locus still said nothing to her. He only nodded at her and began a walk toward the outermost edges of Outpost Echo, where nobody was likely to notice the two of them. 

When they got there, Carolina’s stomach flipped at the sight of a single Warthog. One which looked ready to leave at the drop of a hat, one which seemed to be in good repair. 

Something was  _ wrong _ .

Mostly, she was pretty sure that Locus had noticed that her armor hadn’t been using the same equipment as the rest of her teammates had. That it hadn’t been what she’d been instructed to use. She’d used non-authorized equipment in the field that marked her as an enemy, or at the very least more than what she’d been selling herself as.

In which case, Carolina thought, it was entirely possible that she was getting loaded into a Warthog so that she could be dragged offsite, executed, and have her armor used for parts. 

_ Epsilon, _ Carolina prayed for her AI partner to help her desperately.  _ What can you do? _

_ Uh, shit. _ Epsilon responded, seeming just as panicked as Carolina felt over the matter.  _ I might be able to stall the engines but that’s about it. _

And  _ that _ wasn’t good for either of them. If anything, it would simply delay the inevitable. 

Based on how quickly Locus had killed the New Republic soldier earlier that day, Carolina even had her doubts on whether he’d bother to wait or not. 

The two of them paused just outside of the Warthog. Carolina looked from it and then back up at Locus. “Is something wrong, Sir?”

“No.” Locus responded in a low grumble. Whether or not he told the truth, Carolina couldn’t be too sure of. “Get in.” 

Carolina stared Locus down almost as a challenge to  _ make her _ , but climbed into the Warthog at shotgun since she was sure that she had no other option. If he was about to take her off to be executed, then the odds were that he didn’t want to do it when they were already so close to camp. 

Because executing a space pirate near camp as opposed to away from it would apparently be worse for morale than any other case in which one executed one of their own men. The only difference Carolina could discern was that the message given would be one of how disposable they all were.

She needed her  _ armor _ and she didn’t have it. 

In the back of the Warthog behind her, a single sniper rifle laid across the seat, anything but innocent. It was like the damn thing  _ knew  _ what was about to be happening. 

_ Fuck _ .

Carolina settled into place though, doing what she could to at least look like she was calm. Locus climbed into the driver’s seat, started the vehicle, and then the drive away from Outpost Echo began so that they could do  _ something. _

It sadly resembled that morning’s mission too much in too many ways. 

Mostly, Locus didn’t speak until they were most of the way toward the destination. He didn’t look at her at all, actually.

“Has Felix approved you for our ranks?” Locus asked her out of nowhere. 

Carolina swallowed. “I believe he has.” She replied, voice stilted since she still hadn’t quite figured out what was going on. 

“What tests did he do?”

She didn’t answer. There was no good way to say that she’d gone completely without testing. 

“As I expected.” Locus grumbled, clearly frustrated. 

Carolina’s heart beat too hard in her chest as they pulled into an empty valley, one which was sandwiched between trees and as inconspicuous as possible. Locus parked them, which gave Carolina just enough time to assess before she decided that it would be her most likely final resting place. 

“Get out.” Locus ordered. Carolina followed the order immediately and took two and a half steps away from the Warthog. 

There wasn’t anything about the valley that seemed to make it special. It looked like it was simply little more than a dip in the land where someone could have a passing chance of going unnoticed for a few hours if the need were to ever arise. 

A great place to commit a murder, truly.

Locus watched her, evaluating. 

“Felix’s lack of care towards assessment.” Locus started, almost like he didn’t entirely realize just how awkward it made him sound when he did so. “It’s been a problem too many times before. For that reason, you’ll be doing your assessment now. You’re only officially part of my ranks once you've shown what you are capable of.” 

_ Please tell me you’re going to fucking hold back at least a little, _ Epsilon told her with a tweak to a nerve in her shoulder.  _ Overdo it and we’re both fucking dead. And I don’t want to know what these assholes would use a smart AI for. _

“I understand.” Carolina said to both the man and the AI that were speaking to her. “What’ll you have me do?” She asked as she locked her eyes onto Locus’ helmet. The lack of eyes or any features beyond the skull motif was unsettling. It made her feel like she was simply staring her death in the face. 

If she messed up, she very likely would be doing just that.

Locus stared her down, but she watched as he went to the Warthog and reached in. What he removed was the same sniper rifle that had been in the back seat the entire time. Carolina wasn’t entirely certain that it wasn’t simply Locus’ personal weapon, but she accepted it all the same. 

Epsilon spoke up before Carolina could even start to turn it over in her hands. 

_ Pretty standard model. _ He explained.  _ That’s a SRS99D-S2 AM. They’ve been using it for years. Fires five shots I think. Two types of zoom, either 5x or 10x— _ He droned on about the rifle like he was certain that he knew everything. Carolina could even picture him flashing delta green as he did it, even if his avatar wasn’t there to switch colors before her eyes.

She didn’t quite have it in her heart to tell him that the rifle was model SRS99-S5 AM, that it had 4 shots per magazine, and that it’s zoom was either 4x or 9x. 

He’d tried, so she figured he could give him credit there. 

It was a  _ very  _ good thing that Epsilon couldn’t act as the universe’s shittiest sniper anymore, though. 

Carolina had a strong feeling that Locus wouldn’t have made the same mistake. 

“This will be a test of accuracy.” Locus informed her. “You have one magazine to perform it with.”

_ Christ, this guy really doesn’t bullshit around, does he?  _ Epsilon asked. 

“Alright.” Carolina glanced around the valley once more, not quite sure that the actual test  _ was _ since there wasn’t any sign of targets that had been laid out. There wasn’t even any sign that people had gone there to be assessed before. “And how will that be done?”

Locus stepped up to the Warthog and reached in, removing a large black case of some sort from behind the front seats. It was clearly heavy based on the way that Locus even seemed to strain under its weight. He set it down on top of the hood, and Carolina watched the Warthog sink with its weight. Locus fiddled with it for a moment. 

All at once it came to life, and Carolina saw familiar looking green targets come to life in the valley, each of them moving at a reasonable pace. 

Carolina stared at the targets. “That’s a training projector.” She said, dumbfounded. She’d never seen the ones on the Mother of Invention in person. They’d always been hidden behind walls and panels where they couldn’t be damaged as easily.

Where the hell had Locus even gotten one of them?

“It is.” Locus grumbled, flipping through some of the settings. 

Carolina felt a familiar melancholy settle in her gut as he passed through the hand to hand to the sniper’s test. 

She’d seen Wyoming and North Dakota use the same test several times before, always on different difficulty levels. 

The Mother of Invention had been able to afford more than just one training projector. It had never had to worry about the technical limitations of a sole machine due to what had apparently been nearly unlimited funding. 

What Locus had was something else, and something much less. 

Carolina watched the green dots though. “Where did you get it?”

Locus didn’t answer her. “You are familiar with this device?” He asked instead. There was something odd about the way in which Locus asked the question. It was like there was a genuine curiosity there that hadn’t been there prior. 

Perhaps he, like her, realized that training projectors weren’t common outside of ship-bound operations. 

“I am.” Carolina confirmed all the same. “It’s been a little while since I last used one, though.” 

“Then you’ll require no coaching.” Locus replied, having settled on the training simulation level that he wanted. Unlike on the Mother of Invention, it wasn’t announced to her. “You have one magazine.” 

“Got it.” Carolina said, taking a few steps forward. 

She hoisted the sniper rifle up and located the first of the targets, let out a slow breath, and focused on it. 

There was a reason he’d taken her from camp without her armor. He didn’t want her to get any assistance from any of the many targeting assist software that seemed to come standard-installed on the average helmet. Of course, Epsilon alone could have done the same but Locus didn’t know that.

On top of the lack of assistive software, there was the fact that her armor couldn’t account for any recoil that the rifle gave. 

He was forcing her to rely solely upon her own skills.

The green target stayed in place for a moment, and then began to move. If Carolina had to guess, it was because Locus had triggered it to do so. 

Carolina trained the rifle on the target, and then brought it out just a little bit in front of the green before firing. She didn’t pull away from the scope just yet, not until she was sure that she’d managed to hit the target. 

It flashed red, then disappeared. 

Carolina brought the rifle back down and scanned the area again for the next target. She was certain that there had to be more. 

She found it directly behind her. 

Carolina whirled around and didn’t even bother going down the scope just yet since she was sure that she was falling into a groove of sorts. It took barely a half-second to eliminate it. 

Two more targets appeared at once, side by side. Carolina blinked and let out a slow breath as she evaluated them. Locus had given her four shots to use, and she had two left to use. 

There was a part of her that desperately wanted to do what she would have back in Project Freelancer and try to show off, even though there wasn’t a leaderboard to compete for anymore.

She forced that part of her back though, since she had a feeling that taking two people out with a single shot to the head at once would have been enough to tip Locus off to the fact that she didn’t quite match the profile of Carolina McCallister. 

The first one she fired on, watched the target flash to red, and then she had to move so that she could avoid a red beam of light that headed back in her direction. Carolina sprinted behind the Warthog and dropped down so that she could pretend to take cover. 

Carolina knelt back up, rested the barrel of the rifle on the Warthog’s tire, and aimed for the remaining green target before she took fire between the little red bursts that shot in her direction. 

The target flashed red, and Carolina heard a canned voice announcing that the exercise was completed. 

She let out a breath and stood up, stretching out. 

Locus didn’t do anything. All he did was stare at her, evaluating. 

“Sufficient.” He mumbled, but Carolina wondered if she’d done  _ too  _ well. If Locus was impressed, he certainly wasn’t showing it. But then again, he was a sniper. He would have gone for the double shot and made it too, if Carolina had to guess. Conserving ammunition, or something.

Carolina ejected the magazine, sure to set the emptied out cartridge to the side as she handed it back over to Locus. The mercenary took it by the barrel and the extra magazine as well. “There’s more.” He grumbled. 

She couldn’t help but frown. “What’s next?”

Locus went to the back of the Warthog again, and Carolina watched him gently set the rifle down. He searched the back seat for a moment, and when he found what he was looking for, Locus offered Carolina a magnum pistol, handle first. 

It fit into her palm with a familiar weight. A familiar enough weight that Carolina was certain that it was loaded. “Same thing?” She asked. 

“No.” Locus responded as he set up a second test for Carolina. 

It wasn’t one that was as familiar as the sniper test had been. The truth was that everyone had been expected to be able to handle a pistol and a battle rifle with a certain level of accuracy that nobody had ever used the test for pistol accuracy after recruitment.

Even then, Carolina wasn’t entirely certain that she’d done it in the first place. 

Seven rows of five targets each appeared, all red for the moment. 

She took her position and waited. 

Locus eyed the targets, all thirty-five of them. 

“You have two minutes.” He mumbled as he reached into the vehicle once more. “You have three magazines.” 

Carolina did the math in her head. She had twenty four bullets to use. So she wasn’t expected to clear the board entirely, just hit as many targets as she could. 

“Ready.” She told Locus, and within seconds the entire board of targets flashed red three times before five targets lit up at a time. 

Carolina fired on them, one by one. She managed the first set of five targets with ease, and the second round came so quickly that she missed the first target. 

Internally, Carolina scolded herself because missing something like that was  _ basic _ shit. But she shook her head, re-focused, and eliminated the next round. 

Only nine rounds left, Carolina reminded herself as the targets began to move from side to side, only three lighting up in green for her to shoot. Carolina hit all three, careful to give them a chance to line up before she shot through all three. 

The next set of green targets went vertically, which gave Carolina enough room to do the same thing. 

Three rounds left, Carolina told herself. 

There were three rounds left for her to use, and she’d only missed one target. 

She didn’t have the time to check back over her shoulder to check whether or not Locus was watching her or seemed suspicious of her performance. 

Carolina swallowed though, as the first of the final three targets appeared, moving in a swirling motion. She focused on it, aware of the fact that she was on a clock but not sure how long she had left on it. 

It was possible that there was too much time left on the clock. Carolina wasn’t certain. 

She shot the target once it moved into her sights, since she was pretty sure leading it was useless. 

When the second appeared, she did the same, and relaxed a small amount with the knowledge that there was a single target left. 

It appeared, completely static at first before flashing bright green for a second. The original thirty-five target grid re-appared and the final target began to move randomly around it, flashing back to green for only a moment before moving location. 

Carolina honed in on it, followed it, and when she was certain she had it, she fired her final round. 

The green light turned red, not because she’d hit it, but because she’d missed. 

Carolina let out a breath as she relaxed bit by bit. 

Locus said nothing to her. He simply took the pistol out of her hands, apparently satisfied. 

When he seemed to linger with the pistol between the two of them for just a moment too long, Carolina chose to do nothing. 

He eyed her. “That was impressive.” 

“I’m a good shot.” Carolina responded, sure to put on whatever sense of bravado that she could for the sake of the moment. It was for the best if Locus thought that she was just a good shot. He didn’t need to know what she could do in a close fight. 

The fact that the test was designed with misses in mind didn’t matter. She’d done well.

He seemed to hesitate though. 

Part of Carolina  _ knew _ that it was because her gunplay alone should have been more than enough to get her clearance to be a part of the space pirate army. 

“Is that all?”

Locus sighed. “I assume that your close combat abilities are up to par.” He grumbled, head tilting in her direction in that way that made Carolina feel like she was under a microscope once more. “Your performance was acceptable.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow.  _ Acceptable _ made it feel like Locus was doing whatever he could to try and purposely discourage her. She let go of the pistol, and Locus pulled it away from her. “There is more.” He grumbled, seeming more than frustrated by saying it. 

“What else is there?”

Locus stood up tall, almost like he was snapping back into his usual persona all at once. “Hand to hand.” He said. “Marksmanship with battle rifle.” 

Both of those Carolina  _ knew _ she could over perform at. 

“What else?”

Locus hesitated. “You are capable of driving a Warthog. You’ve been on two missions now.” He turned away from her and began to press a few buttons on the training projector. “You will perform the hand to hand test. If your rifle skills are on par with sniping and handgun, that test may be able to be skipped.” 

_ Fuck, I hate this. _ Epsilon commented.  _ At what point do we decide he’s just trying to keep you here all night? _

_ I don’t think that's it. _ Carolina thought but she nodded along. She walked out to the middle of the clearing and simply waited for Locus to start the simulation. He seemed to hesitate a moment too long. Carolina couldn’t help but wonder whether or not he was trying to set it so high that she would have no choice but to fail.  _ I think he’s actually testing me. _

_ And yet, _ Epsilon told her,  _ You’re probably going to have to fail on this one anyways. There’s no way he’s not looking at you weird. _

Carolina let out a breath that made it seem more like she was simply trying to calm herself down. It was more of a sigh in reality. 

And it sucked, and it  _ sucked _ so badly because she knew for a fact that she could absolutely  _ destroy  _ the test. She knew it better than the back of her hand, and even if she wasn’t entirely sure that she had the muscle memory for it anymore, she  _ knew _ she could beat it with ease. 

Carolina thought over her many options for justifying a failure. 

The easiest way, Carolina realized, was probably to roll an ankle and drop. With any luck she wouldn’t have to worry about injuring herself at all. Worst came to worst, she’d get a ride back to Outpost Echo and she’d be able to use the healing unit in her armor to fix it up. 

She slid down into a fighting stance, and prepared herself to fail. 

_ Need me to help? _ Epsilon asked.  _ Let me take over for a bit and you’re probably going to do fine. _

And it  _ was  _ an idea, but not one which Carolina was certain was actually good. She’d seen some of the other freelancers when they’d been piloted by their AI. York had always ended up moving in a stutter-step, too precise range of motions to be human. He’d never spoken quite right. North had picked up some  _ odd _ habits. Wyoming’s knock knock jokes had only gotten significantly worse. 

And Maine…

Maine was the reason she could never say yes to Epsilon’s suggestion. That was all there was to it.

The simulation started, and any attempts which Carolina needed to make in order to shake the thought from her mind faded all at once as she simply chose to focus on the moving targets that surrounded her. 

Carolina thought it over, and made a decision. 

The first few punches that she threw hit the targets as they were still in the stage of the simulation where they only moved around her  _ slowly. _ As they began to move faster Carolina made sure to pull more and more of her punches, throwing kicks only in moments where it was  _ easy _ to get the targets. 

Halfway through, she made sure to stumble, just enough to drive the point home. She could fight hand to hand, but she wasn’t the best at it. That was the image that she needed to be able to sell.

Carolina sincerely hoped that Locus was satisfied by the outcome that he’d gotten. It was otherwise a bitter wound to her pride which Carolina knew she wouldn’t be able to forget about easily. 

Locus approached her. “You performed… adequately.” 

Carolina nodded. “Good enough to still get accepted?” She asked, just in the hopes that Locus would actually say yes to her and give her some peace of mind. 

Locus grunted. “You’re in.” He muttered to her, just loud enough that she could hear. “Felix didn’t misjudge you.” And for just a second, Carolina could have  _ sworn _ that there was a slight softening of Locus’ tone as he spoke. 

Carolina nodded along though, since she had her doubts that Locus would question her too much after. “So then we can go back to the Outpost.” She guessed at what would happen next, if only for her own comfort. The incident in the armory still hadn’t left her mind. 

She was pretty sure that it never would. Not with the way that Locus had managed to pen her in so that she couldn’t get away from him. Not with how terrified she'd felt in those moments. 

Locus grunted and began to go about the process of unplugging the training projector, taking his sweet time with it. When the time came to move it, Carolina almost offered to help but he’d already gotten it off of the Warthog’s hood before she could get a word in edgewise. 

The projector went down into the back of the Warthog. Locus took his position in the driver’s seat, and Carolina fell into place at shotgun. 

The drive back to Outpost Echo was dead silent. 

When Carolina got up in the morning, any sign that Locus or Felix had been there on base at all was completely gone. 


	8. Joy Ride

The irregularity of the schedule of Outpost Echo began to wear on Carolina, bit by bit. 

Neither of the mercenaries had shown their faces at the Outpost for a solid week, and Carolina watched day by day as the standards around Outpost Echo began to slip. It started with small things, like the mess area being kept open a little longer. After, it was something else entirely. 

According the many rumors that were flying about, the Mercs had needed to move on to one of the other Outposts as they were dragged around Chorus by the two armies. 

Carolina wasn’t  _ entirely  _ convinced. 

There was a routine of sorts that all of them fell into, though. It was almost like a vacation, when it should have been anything but that.

Every morning, her squad still woke early. They went for morning jogs and through the same standard exercise routines in the hopes that they’d be able to stay sharp. Darnoldson would do his best to carry his role as a squad leader only to get overshadowed by Coyote at every corner. McTavish’s skills got sharper by the day. Carolina continued to do her best to keep a low profile, but she was fairly certain that at least some of her squad mates had realized that she was more than she was selling herself for.

Coyote was getting  _ bored _ . It was so obvious and so tangible that Carolina halfway expected the woman to snap at any moment over it. Surely at some point she would lash out, she’d let the pent up anger and frustration go, and then Carolina didn’t know what would happen. 

As for her, she simply did what she could to keep a low profile while she planned her excursion to Armonia. Whenever that would be, and however it would happen. She was going to go. It wasn’t a question, in Carolina’s mind. 

On a Wednesday, Coyote came to her with a suggestion that about made Carolina’s heart stop with the realization of what was being handed to her, probably unknowingly.

“So.” Coyote said, all but slamming her meal tray down onto the table as she took the seat directly across from Carolina. “It’s been a week since we’ve had a mission, or anything else to do around her.” She started, taking a moment to glance over her shoulder to check that the two of them weren’t getting listened in on. Satisfied, Coyote looked back to Carolina. “Nobody would notice if we wanted to slip off for a joyride.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow, and did the same as Coyote had just done. It was a risky enough conversation for the two of them to have even on a baseline. Coyote didn’t know what Carolina was actually up to. In the end, Carolina also  _ really  _ didn’t want to end up implicating Coyote as an accomplice. 

Mostly because she was sure that traitors got killed immediately. She was fundamentally an enemy to the Mercs. It was  _ different _ . 

Coyote wasn’t. She was an at least somewhat valued member of the space pirate forces.

“And?” Carolina asked, letting a slight smile tug at the corners of her lips. “What happens if we get caught?”

“As long as I get the right people whiskey on my next outing,  _ I’ve _ got nothing to worry about.” Coyote explained with a shrug. “And neither would you, for that matter.” 

Carolina nodded along slowly, still not sure how she was supposed to respond to Coyote. “You seem awful confident.”

Coyote shrugged and poked at her protein block. “I’ve done it before. Figured having some company that doesn’t completely suck wouldn’t hurt.” 

_ Holy shit, C.  _ Epsilon told her with a tug on her spinal nerves that was just enough to irritate her.  _ Fucking say yes. We could find the Reds and Blues. _

It wouldn’t be the objective of the trip. Carolina knew that there was probably no way in hell that she’d be able to convince Coyote to derail it all for the sake of searching down a bunch of rainbow colored idiots. But still she could try and get a better lay of the land. 

If things panned out in the right ways, Carolina figured she could even slip away from Coyote for just long enough to find Wash, and then she could be back in time that she’d never get noticed. 

It was possible. 

Carolina let out a long-suffering sigh, one that made her come off as far more reluctant about the prospect of the trip than she actually was. 

“If you insist that it’ll be fine,” Carolina said. “I guess I don’t see much of a problem.” 

A wide grin split Coyote’s expression, one which showed off her teeth and the gap that had been left behind by what could have only been the loss of a canine tooth. There was probably a story there, Carolina thought, but she doubted she’d ever heard it. 

“Right.” Carolina replied. “So—”

“Vehicle bay.” Coyote ordered with a shrug. “Ten tonight.” She poked at her food once more, the same way that  _ everyone _ at Outpost Echo did. Carolina had even caught herself doing it a few times as she thought of how badly she would kill for a meal of actual food. “Dress warm.” 

Dinner and a hot shower was quickly becoming the top of the list of Carolina’s priorities for when she got off of Chorus.

“I guess I’ll see you there, then.” Carolina said. 

Coyote grinned and winked at her. “Might want to pack a bag. Could be a long trip.” 

“Noted.” Carolina said, unable to help the genuine grin that split her face at the prospect. 

In a way, she felt like a little girl planning sleepovers behind her father’s back. 

It was a good feeling, despite everything. 

* * *

Carolina ended up spending all of thirty minutes packing her duffel bag for an overnight trip. Coyote had made it sound like the two of them would be on the road for a while, after all. While she packed, Carolina also had to make an effort to drowning out Epsilon’s many suggestions— none of which she found to be particularly helpful.

In the end, she'd ended up with two changes of clothes, a rifle and pistol and the requisite ammunition for both, and bedding to use on the trip, all in addition to her usual armor. The fact that she was coming armed to the teeth had less to do with her actual  _ plans  _ and hopes than it did the fact that she and Coyote were going on a joyride through an active warzone. 

In hindsight, the entire plan was mind-numbingly  _ stupid _ . Carolina had never even  _ heard  _ of people trying to have a joyride in a war zone. Especially not one like Chorus, where so many lives had already been lost and the war was approached by the two sides with a certain level of ruthlessness.

The danger that her situation presented her with was not lost on her by any stretch of the imagination. 

She went to the vehicle bay a little bit early to find that Coyote was already there, in the process of prepping one of the many Warthogs stored there for a trip. From the second that Carolina stepped in, she saw that Coyote was already in her armor, and the back of the Warthog had already been turned into a bed large enough for two. 

It used the most comfortable looking blankets that Carolina had seen since she'd arrived on Chorus. 

Her stomach flipped. That couldn’t have been a good thing.

“Hey.” She greeted Coyote as she loaded her duffel bag into the back seat. “Been in here long?”

“Half an hour.” Coyote said. “What do you think?”

Carolina looked the Warthog over. “I think I like it.” She said, almost wishing to rip her gloves off of her hands and run her fingers over the blanket that Coyote had picked out for the two of them. 

_ For the two of you, _ Epsilon commented.  _ Goddamnit. Please let me know if I need to go offline for this shit. The last thing I need is to have to sit in on this shit. Tucker’s brain was bad enough. _

And as much as Carolina  _ wanted  _ to verbally scold Epsilon for the comment, she couldn’t. 

“Yeah.” Coyote scoffed. “Should be a good time.” She looked the Warthog over. “You can’t see it, but there’s extra ammo and guns in the seats. Along with rations so you don’t have to worry about that shit at the very least.” 

“Well that’s good.” Carolina said, pulling the corner of the blanket away from the seat so that she could open up the hatch hidden inside to see just what Coyote had packed. She didn’t expect much, and since neither she nor Coyote (at least she was  _ pretty sure  _ Coyote wasn’t) were native Chorusans Carolina had to guess that hunting for local game or trying the wild plants around them wasn’t in the question. 

Carolina had heard more than enough stories about people dying horrible, excruciating deaths because they’d chosen to dabble with the local flora without knowing what they were doing. She had no intentions of being among their ranks. 

What was inside the seats was just what Coyote said, and the hatches were packed to the brim. Carolina closed them shut again and was pleasantly surprised to find that the cushions on the Warthog’s seats were velcroed in place so they were guaranteed to have pillows later on, whenever the need came.

Coyote relaxed though. “We can head out as soon as you’re ready. I’m waiting for ten so that we’re out of here after curfew, though.” 

“I thought we didn’t have anything to worry about?” Carolina teased. 

“We don’t.” Coyote replied with a nonchalant shrug. “Think of it as a courtesy. Not showing off that we're ditching camp for a bit to the rest of the assholes here. Just trust me when I say that it’s going to save us both a lot of headaches later on.” 

Back in Project Freelancer, there had been somewhat similar rules. Those had mostly been about the high-ranked agents not showing off and bragging too much in front of the lower ranked ones. It had been well understood that everyone in the program had already been under more than enough pressure without all of them piling on. Even then, the rule had been more of a courtesy than a hard  _ rule. _

That specific courtesy hadn’t existed in the top ranks though. They’d been fucking  _ merciless  _ to each other about rank. 

It was half the reason that things had gone downhill so badly in the way that they had. 

The other half was… well.

Epsilon was a pretty good reminder of it.

“So I guess we’re just waiting now, then?” Carolina asked, wondering whether or not she should put her duffel in one of the hatches for safe-keeping. She walked toward the front and saw that there was a shotgun resting between the driver and passenger’s seat in the front. All waiting for the two of them to set off for Armonia. 

“Pretty much.” Coyote said with a shrug. “Anywhere you wanted to go, anyways? Because this could just be a camping trip if you wanted to to be, but…”

Carolina hesitated. “What is there to even do on this planet that doesn’t involve the war?”

Coyote let out a breath. “There's a couple civilian strongholds, but as you can imagine they aren’t  _ exactly  _ welcoming to strangers, especially not ones in full armor. The temples are all over the place but aren’t really worth bothering with unless you want to end up embedded with the science units.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow behind her helmet. She’d heard science units mentioned in passing, but never any more than that. 

“I don’t know.” Carolina said. “The way you say it doesn’t exactly make it sound like a fun time.” 

“It’s not.” Coyote mumbled. “ _ Trust me _ .” She seemed to pause for a moment, considering. “There might still be a little bit of civilization in the outskirts of Armonia. City center is more locked down than anything else on the planet because of the Feds, but you can at least get into the city without being arrested immediately.”

“But?” Carolina asked. There  _ had _ to be a catch. 

“But everyone in the Federal Army is probably already known in the city. If we’re going in, we have to play along as civilians. Not good if anyone realizes that we have armor that doesn’t fit with either of the two armies.” 

“You think they’d search the Warthog?”

“I’m not sure.” Coyote mumbled. “You get the problem.”

“Yeah.” Carolina frowned. “We could abandon the Warthog away from the city and get in with cloaking units. Find somewhere safe to stash our gear, and play along as locals. When it’s time to go—”

“We do the same thing.” Coyote finished for her. “Sounds like it could work, Carolina.”

_ Of course it could work _ , Carolina thought. It was her idea in the first place. She looked up to the clock that was mounted on the wall, since she could at least see how long it would be before the two of them were able to leave. “Not much time left.” She said. “We’ve got a plan. Might as well ready up.” 

Coyote laughed and climbed into the Warthog, choosing to take the driver’s seat. Carolina had to assume that she’d end up driving later on. “We've got GPS so we at least won’t get lost. Hell of a drive we’ve got ahead of us though.”

Without Carolina needing to ask him to do so, Epsilon set motion trackers on her helmet. “Doesn’t surprise me.” She replied, all too relaxed. “For now I guess we’re going to be mostly playing it by ear.” 

“Yeah.” Coyote said as she waited for the clock to tick down. “Pretty much.” 

It wasn’t the worst case scenario that Carolina had ever dealt with. Far from it, really, if she was being honest with herself. She made herself comfortable in the passenger’s seat and set the shotgun that sat there for her between her legs on the off chance that she actually ended up needing the damn thing. She assumed that Coyote would know at least a  _ few _ ways that they could avoid running into the locals, but wasn’t too sure. 

The reality was that Carolina feared the possibility of them running into either of the mercs more than she feared any of the locals. 

When the clock finally ticked past ten, they waited another ten minutes before pulling out and beginning on their way down the road away from Outpost Echo and toward Armonia instead.

* * *

They drove through most of the night. Chorus’ landscape was more varied than Carolina had originally realized. 

At around four in the morning, Coyote decided that it was a good time for them to take a detour. She drove them directly off of the main road, semi-paved as it was, and drove them through the woods until the two of them found what looked like a little hole in the ground of a base. 

Coyote parked their Warthog on top of a moss covered concrete platform. 

“We’re still a way out.” Coyote mumbled, already pulling her helmet off so that she could rub at her eyes. Her unruly hair flopped down into her face and made her look even more exhausted than she already was. “Should get some sleep.”

“I can drive.” Carolina offered, even though she too was starting to feel the tug of exhaustion at her bones. Sleep sounded wonderful, but as things were the two of them were already what would be considered AWOL and Carolina wasn’t entirely sure that they should have been pushing their luck on the matter. 

She also wanted to get to Armonia sooner. She wanted to find her friends, preferably before something could happen to any of them.

“Don’t worry about it.” Coyote answered as she walked toward another part of the clearing, with what was a single raised platform. Sitting on top of it, grown over and undisturbed, was a metal hatch. “C’mon, bed sounds nice.” 

Carolina eyed the hatch. “What is this?”

That got a little shrug out of Coyote. “Old weapons cache. Probably been forgotten about for more than a couple years now, but it’s shelter. Couldn’t tell you why the Mercs stopped using it.” 

Carolina glanced back over her shoulder, back to the Warthog with the blankets that had been laid out in the back for the two of them. At least if they slept in the Warthog they would have known what they were actually going to be dealing with in the long run. “I’m serious,” Carolina said. “I can drive for a bit. You said we had GPS.”

And for some reason which was far from Carolina’s realm of understanding, Coyote began to  _ laugh. _ “I said that we had a GPS, not that we had one that worked perfectly. Just let me sleep a bit and then we can be on the road again. Besides, some sleep would probably do you some good too.” 

If Carolina could have reliably had Epsilon take over and help her, she would have in that moment. Instead, she just eyed the hatch once more. Dead plants dangled from the edge of it, daring her not to mind the fact that the concrete was probably falling apart. “I don’t like the idea of this.” She offered one last time. “Just give me what I need to know, and I’ll drive.” 

Coyote glanced back to the Warthog. “You know, you sound pretty desperate.” 

Carolina stared past Coyote and kept her eyes focused on the hatch in the ground. “I’d say that I mostly don’t trust this place.” 

It was enough to make Coyote turn her head and look down at the hatch for herself, evaluating. And in that moment, Carolina wondered whether or not Coyote saw the same thing that she did. If the driver was aware of the weeds that had been given quite some time to grow over the hatch, whether or not Coyote saw the cracks in the concrete or the rust on the door. 

“Come on,” Coyote rolled her eyes. “It can’t be any more haunted than anything else on this planet is.” 

“I just don’t like it.” Carolina answered, disliking just how truthful she was on the matter. 

The door went back closed, and Coyote picked her way back through the underbrush to the Warthog. She stopped just in front of Carolina and stared her in the eye. She stood so close that Carolina could see Coyote’s dark eyes through her visor. “I’ll send you the maps in a minute.” Coyote answered her, climbing up into the back of the Warthog. “Unless you want to try and get some rest too. You know I made sure that we had enough room for the two of us.” 

Carolina had a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to get away with setting proximity alarms, but she wanted to. Sleep  _ did _ actually sound like a nice thing, and if Carolina was honest with herself a  _ lot _ of work had gone into making that the back of the Warthog fit the most broad definition of comfortable. 

Epsilon could run proximity sensors. 

They’d be fine, wouldn’t they? 

A heavy sigh escaped Carolina. “Fine.” She said. “But we’re only going to stop for a few hours.” 

“That’s all I need.” Coyote replied as she stretched out and began to slip out of the outer shell of her armor, part by part until she was standing in just her bodysuit. She eyed Carolina, expecting her to do the same. 

And Carolina  _ would _ , she just needed to be sure that Epsilon would do his job first. 

“Epsilon,” Carolina whispered to her Ai partner. “Set proximity sensors. If anything gets close, we need to be able to get out of here fast.” 

“Got it.” Epsilon replied, voice only coming through her helmet.

With that settled, Carolina slipped off her helmet first, and set it down in the passenger’s seat where she’d been sitting on the ride out there. After that, she followed it up with the chestpiece that was proving to be more than a pain to adjust to the proper size. 

Once she was fully out of her armor, Carolina climbed into place next to Coyote and settled in to rest. 

The two women pulled the heavy blanket up over themselves, and Carolina allowed herself to relax into the blankets that the two of them had set out for themselves. 

She was barely settled into the blanket when Coyote spoke up. 

“You never said why you joined up with this.” Coyote mumbled to Carolina. “I mean…” Her voice trailed off for a second, dark eyes lit up with starlight as she peered up at the sky above her. “You seem to have your shit together too much for this operation.” 

Carolina let out a low breath. “You could say I crashed into it.” She mumbled after a moment. “Things in my life were changing and I needed to find a way to deal with it. I saw an opportunity to get away from that, and I took it.” 

“And now you’re here.” 

“And now I’m here.” Carolina echoed, wishing again that she could see her friends once more. She hoped that they’d get to Armonia in time to see Wash. Knowing that at least he was okay would have been enough to go a long way for Carolina. 

But as things were, she just didn’t know. 

“I don’t think it’s permanent.” She said after a long silence. “Once this is over with I hope I can find a better way to live my life. Maybe one that isn’t—”

“I hear you.” Coyote mumbled. “I wouldn’t have gone for this one either if I’d know what I was really getting into.”

_ What they’re really getting into? _ Epsilon asked.  _ Recording from your helmet. Hope you don’t mind. _

The sad truth was that Carolina didn’t actually know whether or not she minded at all. There was ultimately more to the issue than she assumed Epsilon considered. 

Carolina let out a slow breath. “I don’t think anyone would have.” She turned her head and got a good look at Coyote, at the woman’s dark, tightly wound curls, and her flat nose and eyes and beauty marks. “I wouldn’t have.” 

“Good.” Coyote frowned and stretched out. “Not that it really matters. Now that you’re here it’s not like there's getting anything out of it.” 

Carolina furrowed her brow. “If you hate it so much, why don’t you leave?” She asked Coyote. “I mean, clearly you don’t have any problem with running off from camp or going AWOL. You have a Pelican. Why come back?”

The question hung between them in the dead jungle air. 

Carolina was somehow left feeling like she'd just been caught holding her breath. 

Coyote however, let out a long, low sigh. “You really want to know that?”

“I’m just trying to figure out how you justify it.” 

“You should know what happens to deserters by now.” Coyote mumbled. “They kill them. If I were to try and take one of the Pelicans, which is being tracked at all times, I’d end up dead too.” She let out a low breath. “And it’s at a point where there aren’t really civilians left that could be shuttled off-planet even if I wanted to. Everyone that's left is…”

“Invested in taking it back.” Carolina finished for Coyote. I made sense. Certainly fit the profile for everything that she'd seen of the civil war since landing. “I get that.”

“The point is,” Coyote waved her hands in front of her as she began to explain herself. “The mercs have this planet locked down. The only way that air traffic gets in and out of here is if they allow it. And anything that they allow out is also going to be tracked. Anything that doesn’t come back…” She glanced over at Carolina. “Got it?”

It put things into perspective. 

If even some of the things that Coyote felt held over to the rest of Locus and Felix’s forces, there was probably one hell of a hidden morale issue that they shared. 

“I’ve got it.” Carolina said, not sure how completely convinced she was. 

But then again, if everyone knew that defecting had only one outcome, she could see why people wouldn’t even try. 

Maybe killing your morals was the only way to even survive the job. It certainly was starting to look that way, at the least. 

Coyote let out a breath. “Try not to think about it too much. The more you think about getting out of here, the more you’ll probably drive yourself insane. That’s why it’s important that you and I… we get out of Outpost Echo when we can.” 

Carolina nodded along. “You said there were trackers.” 

“On all the vehicles.” Coyote confirmed. “I told you already. Never gotten into trouble for it before.” 

As true as that probably was, that didn’t stop Carolina from feeling  _ extremely _ tempted to try and tell Epsilon to see whether or not he could at least fool whatever tracking software existed on their Warthog to make it at least  _ look  _ like the two of them were back on base. 

Or, she thought, it was entirely possible all that she and Coyote needed to do was get Darnoldson and McTavish to play along with their cover story and simply put in a fake report about doing a road patrol in the direction of Armonia. 

But surely  _ that _ was too simple. 

“I don’t like it.” Carolina admitted. She didn’t like it. There was too much that made it feel like things were going to fall through at the seams. All it took was one person noticing a discrepancy and then she and Coyote were in hot water. 

If she were in hot water, then the fact that she was undercover would end up getting noticed. 

Carolina couldn’t afford it. 

“Like I said,” Coyote mumbled. “I get whiskey to the right people, and we're in the clear. Just trust me on that.” 

“You’re certain?”

“Positive.” Coyote mumbled back to her. “Try to get some rest, Carolina. You need your beauty rest and so do I. Armonia isn’t going anywhere.” 

_ We’re in a warzone _ , Carolina wanted to argue, but couldn’t find the words for it. 

She turned over and faced away from Coyote. When her teammate went to sleep, Carolina did her best to do the same but sleep only proved to elude her. 


	9. Armonia

Carolina hadn’t been entirely sure as to what she was expecting to find in Armonia. 

There were some things that she had guessed at. She'd guessed that it would be a run down city, with only the barest signs of life in its innermost corners. She’d guessed that there would be the same poverty that tended to sweep through war torn areas. She guess that there would be orphans of war. Dead businesses and industries. 

She guessed that it would be a city only in name.

What she got instead was genuinely surprising.

It didn’t resemble anything that she'd been expecting at all, almost like the Federal army that occupied the city had made the conscious decision to maintain it. There was something about the decision which felt explicitly wasteful, while also managing to be rather political. 

After all, what good was a city if it wasn’t a symbol of a government, regardless of whether that government was failing or not? 

A capital city was, at the end of the day, a symbol of strength. Of dominance. Of power.

She and Coyote had decided to split up for the sake of an easier infiltration. Coyote had decided to get into the city using cloaking technology as they’d initially discussed. All in all, it seemed like the better plan anyhow, and yet it wasn’t the one that Carolina had gone with.

Carolina had opted for a different route, only able to be taken several minutes  _ after  _ Coyote had already gotten into the city because it at least gave the two of them plausible deniability if either of them were to be caught. 

Carolina’s own infiltration hinged heavily on her Chameleon Unit. Epsilon put in quick but good work doing his best to ensure that she was wearing the same shade of white as the Federal Army soldiers. As long as nobody got a chance to stop her for long enough that they could notice that her helmet was different, she was safe. 

She was able to pass through the checkpoint with significantly more ease than she had originally anticipated. It was far from being a bad thing. 

But once she was in the city and there was no sign of Coyote in sight, Carolina couldn’t help but feel tempted by the opportunity that had just been presented in front of her. She’d made it through a  _ military blockade _ . Nobody had noticed that she’d gotten through simply by virtue of the  _ color of her armor.  _

_ Epsilon, _ Carolina thought as she slipped behind one of the many buildings in the city center where the Federal Army had built up their base. She stared across the street and saw a sign which directed people in the direction of a nuclear power plant of some sort.  _ Care to try and help me out? Don’t exactly have a roadmap here. _

_ Yeah, I’m working on it. _ The AI responded. He lit up by her shoulder for a split second before disappearing again just as quickly.  _ There are security cameras. I don’t expect much but we could at least figure out where they’re holding something. _

She hoped that she'd be able to find Wash, as well as whoever was being kept with him. If she could find Wash, she could at least confirm the safety of  _ some _ of the Reds and Blues. It sure as hell was better than nothing.

Of course, there was also the issue where it was entirely likely that Wash’s condition was being monitored. There was the possibility that Locus was there in the city to rendezvous there with General Doyle, whoever that was. It wasn’t a possibility that she could completely disregard, not when Locus and Felix had both gone radio silent for over a week at that point.

If that was the case, Carolina needed to maintain as low of a profile as possible for her own sake. 

_ Well? _ Carolina prompted Epsilon. Staying in one place for too long was risky.

A half-second later, six windows appeared on her HUD, all of them showing different views of the streets around her. 

_ Yeah, you could say I’m in the network now. _ Epsilon told her cockily.  _ So we can follow whatever road and odds are I can keep a lookout. _

“Thanks, Epsilon.” Carolina whispered to her partner. She slipped out of the shadow and into the road that looked the most promising. She checked back over her shoulder to be sure that she wasn’t being followed, and did what she could to keep a cool head. “I don’t know if we’re going to find them.” 

“Neither do I.” He chose to pipe his voice in over her helmet’s radio, since it was easier. “And hell, even if we do, there’s sure as hell no way that we’re going to get them out of here without people noticing. I mean, we’re pretty sure the guys are prisoners, right? 24 hour lockdowns?”

Carolina’s stomach flipped at the mention of it.

_ Nothing  _ had happened on Chorus to give her any confidence that she wouldn’t find her friends being tortured or abused. Locus’ particular manner of socializing left her even less reason to feel optimistic. 

It may not have been Locus with the nastier rumors around him, but Carolina still expected him to be far from a great captor.

Whatever she found, she hoped it was less than what she expected.

“Okay.” She whispered to Epsilon as the two of them reached a new intersection. Up ahead she could see a pair of guards talking to each other. Whatever it was that they were discussing, Carolina wasn’t sure. She definitely wasn’t confident. 

She glanced over at the buildings, and pressed herself in close to the walls of one. The shade of her armor shifted to match the concrete exterior of the clearly crumbling skyscraper. 

Carolina slipped closer and closer towards the two guards, only to find herself listening in on the  _ exact  _ sort of inane gossip that she’d been glad to leave behind back at Outpost Echo. Knowing which members of the Federal Army were dating who wasn’t of  _ any  _ use to her, regardless of how invested the two guards were into the topic. 

The door to the building that the two of them were guarding swung open, and a short woman wearing white armor stepped out. Red blood splattered the greaves that protected the woman’s forearms and the only thing that marked her role was the violet shade of her armor. 

Back in Project Freelancer, both of the Dakotas had worn purple armor but it had never mattered. She knew that there was an extremely small handful of sim troopers that had been given the color to mark their neutrality. 

Just about everywhere else in the universe, purple had become a medic’s color. It had more to do with the peacetime treaty after the war. The red color of human medics added to the blue of alien blood. 

It had made sense at the time. 

Carolina could only assume based on the woman’s appearance that she too was a medic. 

“Guards!” The cheerful medic announced to the two standing guard as she approached. “Do make sure that nobody else comes in to try and rough up those three.” She seemed to bounce on her heels, a little too excitable about whatever she was discussing. “I mean, we all know that the best cure for concussions isn’t  _ more  _ concussions!” 

_ Well she’s not wrong. _ Epsilon commented, already well in the process of trying to figure out the woman’s identity.  _ Not a very good treatment. I mean, it’s not like we’ve treated Caboose that way. He’s turned out mostly fine though. _

The truth was that  _ mostly fine _ seemed far too generous in Carolina’s point of view, but she also couldn’t see starting an argument over the matter to be worth it. She had to keep a sense of perspective if she was going to be able to survive what was suddenly happening. 

The two guards exchanged a look. The one to speak up stammered as they tried to speak. 

“Doctor Grey, we—” The guard swallowed audibly, and Carolina winced in sympathy at what a train wreck the scene before her was about to become. “We tried! But every time Locus keeps on pulling rank on us, and—”

“No buts!” The woman, apparently named Doctor Grey responded, “You two aren’t very good at guarding! You’re supposed to be keeping the Reds and Blues alive! And you two know that I _ never _ turn down a chance for a good amputation but those ones really aren’t on the list of people I’m supposed to be doing those on!”

The guard let out a beleaguered sigh. “Yes, Doctor Grey.” 

“Oh!” She squeaked. “And if Locus comes by, do invite him to my office for me? I would  _ love _ to be able to have a little chat with him about how he’s treating my patients. And also to psychoanalyze him, but he always has to be  _ sooo _ difficult about it.” 

“Yes, Doctor Grey.” The guard replied again, apparently unwilling to try and keep up with the energetic woman’s ramblings. 

In truth, just listening in on it was leaving Carolina feeling at least a little bit exhausted. More exhausted than she’d previously anticipated, at the very least. 

“Good!” The woman squeaked. “Remember, they get no more visitors!”

“We understand, ma’am.” The second guard spoke up, voice tight and frustrated as they did so. “We’ll notify you right away if you’re needed again.” 

“Alright!” Doctor Grey chirped, already brushing her way by both of the guards, who both kept their eyes on her as she walked. “I’ll see you two soon!”

As Doctor Grey got closer to Carolina, Carolina pressed herself into a crevice in the buildings and hoped that her Chameleon unit would be more than enough to compensate for her. 

The medic walked by her though, and didn’t even seem to pay Carolina even the slightest scrap of attention as she did so. It was a great relief in itself, if only because it meant that Carolina could be certain in her safety. 

Once the woman was out of sight, all that Carolina had left to contend with were the two guards that were waiting by the building. 

If Carolina had to guess, it was a prison pulling double duty as some sort of hospital. Either way, she was  _ certain _ that her friends were inside— Doctor Grey’s rambling had more than proven that theory. All she had to do was just find her best way in. 

“Any idea, Epsilon?” She whispered to her partner. His response was to highlight a location across the street from her with a wrought iron ladder attached to a building. It was enough that she could climb up onto the rooftops with it and then maneuver her way over that way. 

All at once the infiltration had become surprisingly simple. All she had to do was get onto the roof of the makeshift prison and then she’d surely be able to slip in that way. Carolina also knew for a fact that she’d done more than enough risky jumps to be certain that she could probably clear whatever gap there was that needed it. 

After that, her speed unit would probably be enough to compensate for her. 

She waited just long enough to watch the two guards turn away from the road again and then took her chance. She sprinted across the road and between the buildings until she reached the iron ladder. Carolina checked over her shoulder just to be certain that she was still in fact alone, and then climbed up as silently as she could possibly manage. 

The rooftop she ended up on was clean and clear of any sign of cameras. She still decided to keep a low profile, if only to be certain that she was less likely to be spotted up on the rooftops. Using the Chameleon unit to blend in with the sky had never worked before, and Carolina doubted it ever would. 

There was a reason that the chameleon unit and cloaking units were different things. They served different functions, even if some of them ultimately overlapped at the end of the day. 

“What's it look like?” Carolina prodded Epsilon gently for an answer. 

“Looks clear.” Epsilon said, already in the process of mapping out the best route for her to take by the rooftops if they were to get into the prison. “I know you’re not going to, but don’t get caught.” 

As much as Carolina could appreciate the vote of confidence for what it was, she also knew that there was a vast realm of advice that was a thousand times more useful than anything Epsilon had just said. 

But still, he believed in her. He always had. 

“Got it.” Carolina said, evaluating the city map that Epsilon had been constructing bit by bit while they were there. In truth, it was more of the sort of thing that she would have imagined Delta doing. Or perhaps Theta, since North had always talked about Theta liking to create simulations anyways. 

But still Epsilon doing it was a surprise, and a comfort all in one. 

Carolina steeled herself, stood up, and set her eyes on a building just to her left that Epsilon had highlighted for her. It was one where she needed to get at least a running start if she was going to make the altitude that she needed to hit the roof. Not that she wasn’t capable of it, but she needed to be sure of herself. 

She backed herself to the furthest away edge of the building she was already on. “Run the speed unit at fifteen percent.” Carolina asked quietly. “I need a little bit of a boost.” 

“Eh, I’m not so sure.” Epsilon replied, his blue avatar appearing at Carolina’s shoulder. “Ten percent’s probably a bit more appropriate for this one. Too much gas and you’re going straight off the other side.” 

And as much as Carolina  _ knew _ she could handle it if that were the case, she also knew that going off the other side definitely  _ wasn’t _ the way to avoid getting noticed. So she figured that on at least  _ some _ level Epsilon had a point. 

“I’m not sure ten is enough.” She mumbled back to him. “I’m going to need a little extra for the altitude.” 

His avatar flickered purple for a half second. “Nah, you know what, I think you’re closer to right. I’ll give it thirteen and we’ll see what happens.” 

Carolina smirked. “I can work with that.” She slipped down into a running position and waited.

With the agreement made, Epsilon confirmed that the speed unit was powering up. It left Carolina to only wait for the characteristic sort of tightening around her legs that had always signified that the speed unit was ready. 

As soon as she felt it, Carolina threw herself into a sprint toward the edge of the building and made sure to leap off with enough room in front of her that she wouldn’t have to worry too much about clearing the raised wall wrong. 

She went over and landed on the next building other with no problem, just as Epsilon had predicted. When she checked her position Carolina found that another two percent power on the speed unit  _ probably _ wouldn’t have killed her, but she supposed he still had a point. There had probably been enough calculations run where she went over where Epsilon had decided it wasn’t worth trying. 

“Alright.” She muttered to him. “I guess we keep on going.” 

“Yeah.” Epsilon replied, lowering the power level from the speed unit. “Just keep a low profile.”

Carolina rolled her eyes but ran and jumped from building to building, following along with Epsilon’s original map all the while. 

Sure enough, she  _ did  _ reach her destination, though it was only by landing on a windowsill on the third floor. Carolina pressed herself in as close to the window as she possibly could and knelt down into place. If worst came to worst, she could always break the window to get in. The only problem was that a broken window was just as good as an alarm going off. York had proven  _ that _ to her many times over. 

Carolina felt her way down to the lowest edge of the window and gave it a tug. 

It didn’t budge at all. 

Carolina frowned and tried again, putting as much strength into getting the window open as she could while in such a precarious position. Again, the window didn’t budge. The damn thing was either latched manually (although Carolina couldn’t see any sign that such was the case) or it was being kept locked by some sort of security system. 

Either way, breaking the window to get in would be bad news. 

“Epsilon.” She whispered. “Check out what it looks like in there.”

He flickered a thumbs up icon onto her HUD which was more than enough to make Carolina roll her eyes at the sheer ridiculousness of it. It left her with the only option of keeping herself pressed in against the window and as hidden by the Chameleon Unit as she could manage. 

It was a very good thing that the guards didn’t have any reason to go looking up.

“Uh, shit.” Epsilon piped his voice in over her helmet’s radio. “Two things going on right now.” 

And  _ that _ wasn’t good.

“What, Epsilon?” Carolina growled at him with gritted teeth. 

“One, I’m going to be able to get into the security system but I think I can disable it for… let’s be generous and say seven seconds without setting it off.” And to think that seven seconds was  _ generous _ . “Two, your girlfriend’s calling you.” 

Carolina blanched. “She’s not my girlfriend.” 

“Whatever you say.” Epsilon replied. “You want to do this or not?”

Carolina rolled her eyes. It wasn’t as though she’d be able to answer Coyote’s call (and it  _ had _ to be Coyote, since there wasn’t exactly any other options.) “Yeah.” She muttered, choosing to ignore the call. “Give me a countdown.” 

With that Carolina crouched, doing the best to ignore the ringing in her helmet and curled her fingers into the window in front of her. All that she needed to do was get it open with enough time that she could simply climb through. 

It was simple. It had to be.

“Opening in five seconds.” Epsilon announced to her. “I’ll try to keep it disabled for as long as I can, but you’ve gotta be quick. We take too long and the whole fucking city knows we’re here.” 

Carolina rolled her eyes and waited for Epsilon’s signal. She got it quick, forced the window open as quick as she could and all but  _ threw _ herself through the opening in the window. She landed in the room, but had to roll to make sure that she didn’t just land with a loud enough thud to alert everyone there to her presence. Carolina let out a breath and glanced back over her shoulder. 

The window was still open. 

“And we’re done.” Epsilon announced to her. “We leave that open and the system won’t notice that it’s already been opened.” 

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, just make sure you don’t close it on the way out.” 

“Weird loophole.” Carolina mumbled as she placed herself up against the wall, adjusted the shade of her armor, and took stock of where she was. 

“I’m just telling you what’s going on.” Epsilon replied, flickering out of sight. 

She’d ended up in what looked like a staff lounge of sorts. It wasn’t the nicest thing that she’d ever seen, as it was dingy at best. The card table that sat in the center of the room still had what looked like the remnant of someone’s lunch resting on top of it.

If anything, it had probably been left like that for a few hours. 

But there  _ was _ something that was of some use to Carolina. It was posted next to the door, behind a hard plastic sheet that was meant to protect it from water damage. 

Blueprints of the building, along with the escape plans in case of a fire. 

“Epsilon.” 

“Copying it.” Epsilon said as he activated her helmet cam just long enough to snap a picture of the blueprints. “Better than nothing, I guess.” 

“Yeah.” Carolina echoed. “I’m guessing any prisoners are down on the first floor.” 

“Probably.” Epsilon seemed hesitant about the suggestion though. “Especially if the prisoners in question are hurt. I’ve got a feeling that they aren’t exactly running the elevators here right now.” 

Carolina nodded. “So I guess we're going to go and look.” 

“Yeah…” Epsilon scanned the room. “You know, I’m thinking we should try and have you pass yourself off as a guard. People probably won’t notice the armor being too different as long as they see the white.” 

As far as Epsilon’s suggestions went, Carolina figured that it was far from the worst. 

She accessed the files for the Chameleon Unit and found that it was in fact saving the last five custom settings that the armor had worn. As things were there were quite a few shades of concrete and grey, but the earliest available saved setting was the one that resembled the New Republic armor that she'd impersonated at the door. 

The concrete grey melted away and replaced itself with pearly white. Carolina flexed her hands and stared down at the simple sage stripes that covered her armor. 

It wasn’t great, but it would have to do. 

“Alright.” She said, pulling the battle rifle down off of her back. The least she could do was play the part. “Let’s go find our friends.” 

“Yeah.” Epsilon answered, sinking into the back of Carolina’s mind as she began to walk. She could feel him working on  _ something _ back there, but Carolina didn’t know what. With any luck it was going to be the fastest possible escape route. 

Whatever else it could have been, Carolina didn’t know. Her main hope was that it was something useful.

She found her way down the stairs and into a hall where there was a pair of guards in the room, all waiting outside of a heavy looking metal door. The two of them didn’t look over at her for long, but as soon as they saw her, the first let out a sigh. 

“Finally!” They said as they turned away and began on the way down the hall toward  _ something.  _ Epsilon tried to fill in the blank for her by flashing an image of the building’s blueprints on Carolina’s HUD once more, highlighting the bathroom in the process. 

The second guard looked at her directly. 

“Uh—” They began. Carolina rolled her eyes and rushed them, just quick enough to be sure that the guard (and she couldn’t let herself think about how old they probably were under the helmet. Based on the pitch of their voice she had to guess  _ young)  _ would fall straight into her grip. She caught them and carefully held them. 

All that she needed was for them to fall unconscious. That was all. 

Carolina felt them slump heavily in her grip, and when she laid them down she was careful to ensure that they were rested against the wall. She’d only have a few minutes, but she couldn’t think of what other sorts of prisoners would require two armed guards at their locked door. 

If anything, she was willing to bet that the door was locked and had two armed guards because  _ at least _ one of the idiots on the other side had attempted an escape. 

Carolina went straight for the little door that trays of food were supposed to slide through and pulled it open. 

On the other side, Carolina saw three men. 

All three of them were still in their armor, their bodies turned so that they couldn’t face the door. Al three of them were also in chains. 

But mostly the three of them were familiar. 

Two reds, each sitting on both sides of a single blue-slash-former-freelancer. 

Carolina felt cool relief wash over her at the sight of Sarge, Wash, and Donut. It was at least three of her friends that she could be positive were still alive. She couldn’t guess to what any of them looked like under their armor or their helmets. She almost didn’t want to know, based on what Doctor Grey had been saying outside of the building mere minutes before. 

She slid the food tray door shut and reached for the large locking mechanism beside the door. It took a minute of fidgeting with it to figure it out, but sure enough the door opened up. 

Carolina pulled with all of her might and the door opened for her. 

The first of the three men in the cell to turn his head to see the door was Sarge. Sarge. God, Carolina had missed Sarge. He’d no doubt been doing his best to look after his two cellmates. 

“We’ve got company!” Sarge growled. 

It felt like a slap in the face. Carolina nearly jerked back entirely at the suggestion of it. 

“What?!” Sarge was close to shouting. “You’re back to torture us again, coward? I know a Blue when I see one!”

Whether or not he thought she was a guard or whether he knew who she was, Carolina wasn’t sure of. 

Either way, it hurt that it was the first greeting she’d get. 

“Sarge, enough.” Wash growled from his side. “Antagonizing them makes it worse.” There was something in his voice that Carolina didn’t like. A coolness, a practiced calm which could have only come from Wash going through some insane bullshit in the past. 

They hadn’t talked about it. It was probably good that they hadn’t talked about it. 

“Oh, come on guys!” Donut spoke up with a sort of forced cheery tone to his voice. “I’m sure that whoever’s here for us just wants to show us a—”

“Shut up Donut.” Sarge and Wash said in unison. 

_ Yeah, done. _ Epsilon told Carolina out of nowhere.  _ Check your armor. _

What the fuck did that mean? Carolina thought, but she looked down at her hands. 

Robins egg blue. Aqua. Turquoise. Teal. Whatever color it was. Comforting blue. 

“Hey, guys.” Carolina greeted the three of them, sure to keep her volume down. “Long time no see.” 

Her voice was enough to make Wash immediately straighten up. He whipped his head to the side so that he could see her. Carolina said nothing, but made sure to close the door as much as she could without having to worry about locking it behind her. A part of her wanted to drag the unconscious guard in with her, but opted not to. The last thing she needed to do was risk making any possible injuries worse. 

“Carolina?” Wash’s voice began to climb in pitch almost  _ immediately.  _ “What are you doing here?” 

“Checking in on you.” Carolina said, feeling a heaviness settle in her heart. She couldn’t save them without risking the mission. She couldn’t just bring them back to Outpost Echo with her and assume they were safe. Her bringing them back would bring up  _ far _ too many questions. 

Coyote may have been an experienced smuggler, but Carolina had a feeling that the Reds and Blues would be a little too much for her. Carolina still found that some of them were best taken in small doses. 

It wasn't anything personal. It was far from it, really. She just wasn’t used to the level of nonsense that came with the Reds and Blues quite like Wash was. 

Wash turned his head, just enough to be certain that he could see her within his peripheral vision. Another little odd bit of Freelancer training, Carolina knew. Minimal movements in high stress non-combat situations. “How did you get in here?”

“The rooftops.” Carolina whispered back to him, drawing in close enough so that she could slip in front of the three of them. Conveniently, Epsilon kept the chameleon unit working so that she could sink into the shadows like she wasn’t even there. “How long have you been here?” She asked, dipping her volume just in case there was some sort of listening device in the area. 

“Six days I think.” Wash answered, looking to Sarge for confirmation. All he got was a noncommital shrug as a response. “They've made it hard to keep track of.” 

“Got it.” Carolina sighed, glancing to the door. 

God, taking them out of there would have been so  _ easy. _ All she would have had to do was lead the charge out. 

But then she’d create a thousand new issues, ones which she knew for a fact she couldn’t handle as easily as she would have liked. She couldn’t break them out without Locus and the Federal Army noticing. She didn’t have anywhere safe that she could bring them. She didn’t know where Tucker, Grif, Simmons, and Caboose were, even if she  _ wanted  _ to. 

In a way, leaving them to suffer in a prison was kinder than freeing them. 

None of the three men deserved it, but it was what she had to do. 

Carolina glanced at the door. “I can’t get you out of here.” She whispered, choosing to kneel down in front of Wash. She stared at his face, past his visor where she could just barely see the bridge of his nose and the shape of his dark eyes. “Not without making things worse.” 

“I understand.” Wash replied, a hardness in his voice that Carolina  _ never _ wanted to have to hear again. “But why?”

Carolina checked the door again. Still no sign of company. “It’s too complicated to explain right now.” She said sadly. “But I’m inside something… weird. Infiltrating and trying to bring it down from the inside.” 

“And the other Reds and Blues?” Wash asked, voice concerned. 

“Alive.” Carolina sighed. “I don’t know where they are though. But I know they’re alive.” 

“Grif and Simmons are alive?” Donut asked hopefully. “You’re sure?”

“I am.” Carolina confirmed. “I’ve got enough credible information that I can be sure of it. I’m trying to find them. When I’ve done that and confirmed whether they’re safe, I’m getting you guys out of here. As things are I don’t have anywhere safe to bring you.” 

“We could help you!” Sarge exclaimed. “With the exception of Agent Buzzkill, we’re reds! We’ve gotten rid of Freelancers! You know our glory.” 

Carolina saw Wash roll his eyes through the shield of his visor. 

“It’s not that simple.” Carolina replied. “Me and Epsilon are already working overtime to keep a low profile. We can’t risk blowing our cover right now.” 

Donut perked up. “I always knew you’d be a good covergirl!”

And while Carolina had a  _ lot _ of questions about what exactly  _ that  _ was supposed to mean, she shrugged it off. 

“I don’t know when I can get out here again.” Carolina whispered. “I’ll see if I can do anything from my end to make things easier for you but I can’t make any promises. I just need you three to promise not to… talk about this.”

“We promise.” Sarge spoke up first, confident and strong and sure of himself. “You do what you have to do, Carolina. I know you’re a blue, but you’re red where it counts. Bring glory to the Red Team. ” 

“Sure, Sarge.” Carolina smiled back at him. “Just give me time.” 

Wash moved his head again, the same minimal movements that Carolina had come to expect. Checking the door. Checking his six even though Carolina could already do it. “You’re certain this will work?”

“I am.” She mumbled. “Kind of. It’s not easy.” 

“I believe you.” He stared into her eyes. “Get us out of here when you can, Carolina.” Wash swallowed, just loud enough that Carolina could hear him. “These assholes aren’t exactly forgiving with their prisoners.” 

And considering what she  _ did _ know about Locus, that checked out. Whatever culture he bred with the Federal Army was probably close enough to how he acted on his own. “I had a feeling.” She stood up tall, checking the door. “I have to get out of here.” She told her friends. “The person I’m here with is already starting to ask questions.” 

“We understand!” Donut spoke up. “We’ll be strong for you!”

“Thanks.” Carolina turned toward the door. “Try to keep it together. I’m getting you three out of here as soon as I can. I promise.” 

“Do what you have to.” Wash said. “Just don’t get killed, boss.” 

And god, how being called  _ boss _ always managed to tug at Carolina’s heartstrings in such an uncomfortable way. As much as she knew it to be an expression of affection, a reminder of what she was, it hurt. She’d already lost one team. 

Wash was all that was left from it. 

He believed in her. 

_ Out of time, C. _ Epsilon flashed a warning on her HUD.

It would have to be enough.

Carolina turned. “Bye.” She whispered to her friends on the way out of the cell.

When she locked the door behind her, she felt like she locked part of herself in there with it. 


	10. Diversions (1)

Carolina and Coyote’s trip back from Armonia ended up being one of the most  _ tense  _ experiences of Carolina’s life. 

She’d done what she could to survive the impromptu interrogation that occurred, and Coyote didn’t  _ quite  _ believe that Carolina had gotten turned around. Getting turned around didn’t excuse the apparently upwards of fifteen calls that Epsilon had chosen to auto-ignore so that Carolina could finish out her mission. Getting turned around didn’t excuse her being missing for over an  _ hour. _

Apparently in the time that Carolina was visiting Wash, Coyote had been on a mad search through the city. 

Either way, she was pissed and Carolina couldn’t  _ exactly _ blame her for it, all things considered. They were in an active war zone and had visited Armonia not only without permission but also with the understanding that they ran the risk of blowing the merc’s entire operation.

The drive was long, which only meant that every waking moment was uncomfortable. 

Coyote was furious. That was all there was to it. 

She probably wasn’t going to forget about the incident. Carolina couldn’t  _ exactly _ blame her for it, but it still wasn’t great. 

In the end, all Carolina had to comfort herself with was the knowledge that Wash, Donut, and Sarge were doing what they could to keep it together. They were safe, at least for the moment.

At some point she’d need to find Tucker, Caboose, Grif, and Simmons. She needed to be sure that they were also safe, and the knowledge that Carolina managed to pick up secondhand through Felix wasn’t satisfactory on that front. It was difficult putting a lot of stock in the words of a man that was  _ thoroughly  _ rumored to be a sadist with a habit of killing the people that annoyed him. 

Of course, people said the same things about Locus, but Locus didn’t see himself as anything different. 

Felix  _ liked  _ people liking him. That was what made him dangerous.

It was obvious. It was built into every interaction she’d ever seen him have. 

For the entire drive back to Outpost Echo, Carolina had no option but to stew on what she knew. 

Coyote didn’t talk to her. Carolina still couldn’t blame her. 

She probably wouldn’t have talked to herself after all of what had happened either. 

Unfortunately, everything seemed to fall apart at once within seconds of the two of them pulling into Outpost Echo’s vehicle bay. 

The reason for that was a single armored figure, sitting in the stick shift operated Warthog and flipping a knife in his fingers as he sat there. It was like he was  _ waiting  _ for them. Like he  _ knew _ what they were up to. 

Like he'd been following the tracking information on the Warthog the entire time. 

Tracking information which would have been  _ freely _ available to him.

“Well, look who it is.” Felix said cockily, getting up in one fluid motion that made him appear as dangerous as he was relaxed. “You two enjoy your little joyride? Because let me tell you, I am  _ not _ happy.” 

Neither Carolina nor Coyote answered him. 

All at once, the two of them fell back into a sort of camaraderie at once. All because they were afraid of the same thing, which was whatever Felix decided to do with the information that they'd slipped off to Armonia for a day and a half. 

He tilted his head, drawing in close to the two of them. “So, tell me a story.” He started. “What was so  _ interesting  _ out in Armonia that you two just couldn’t wait to get out there?” 

Coyote rolled her eyes and parked the Warthog before turning herself around and rifling around in the blankets behind her in search of something. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Coyote remove two bottles. 

The first was amber colored with a faded whiskey label. The second was easier to identify, a bottle of red wine. 

Coyote held the two of them up in front of Felix where he could see them. 

Carolina could practically picture the vulpine grin behind the mercenary’s helmet as he tucked the knife that he’d been playing with away and into his armor. 

“What a coincidence,” Felix started as he began to stride in closer to them. “That’s  _ exactly  _ what I wanted to hear.” He drew in close and retrieved the two bottles. He turned the whiskey bottle over in his hand, reading over the label. “Wish you could have done better, but I guess what we get is what we get on this shithole.” 

“Don’t complain.” Coyote answered him. “I got you what I could.” 

“And it’s conveniently enough to make me keep my mouth shut.” He glanced between the two of them. “Let me guess, there was a third bottle of wine and you decided to split it?”

“Something like that.” Carolina spoke up. It was better to confirm an outright lie than to tell the truth. “Hope you can forgive us for that.” The truth was that during Carolina’s turn to drive, Coyote had all but chugged the entire bottle of wine herself out of sheer frustration. It wasn’t  _ exactly _ the semi-romantic outing that Felix seemed to be envisioning, and Carolina was mostly okay with it. 

Half truths were better than full lies in a situation like hers. 

Felix looked from the bottle of the red wine to her. “Well isn’t that just a shame.” He muttered, with a tone of  _ bitterness _ in his voice. “Well.” He perked up, practiced calm running through his whole body. “I’ll be willing to ignore this transgression. As far as you two are concerned, you went off for a supply run. If my partner starts asking questions, hold that line. Worst comes to worst, I let him enjoy the fruits of your labors.” 

“Sure thing.” Coyote said, walking to the back of the Warthog to start and unpack what she needed from it. “Thanks for the help, Felix.” 

“Thanks for the booze.” Felix replied simply. “And try not to let this happen again for a bit. Shit’s getting weird and I need you two here since having  _ dependable _ help has been fucking impossible lately. ” 

Coyote and Carolina paused at that. Coyote turned her head to Felix, the seat cushions that she’d been in the process of replacing forgotten in her hands. “What’s happening?”

Felix shrugged. “Locs is getting to move the Reds and Blues again. Which means that I can’t exactly trust him to be here right now.” He hesitated for a moment. “Apparently someone broke into a Fed prison while the two of you were in Armonia.” 

Carolina swore internally, as did Epsilon, even louder so that Carolina couldn’t help a wince. It was a good thing she had her helmet on. As long as Felix couldn’t see her face, she was safe. 

“What?” Coyote asked. “Any theories?”

“Nah.” Felix grumbled. “Just the usual paranoid shit like always with him. Point is, when the caravan to move them gets going, we’re running a little raid. Got to keep things interesting around here, after all.” 

Carolina felt her stomach flip. Running a raid meant that her friends were going to be in the  _ line of fire _ . It meant that they weren’t going to be safe, that they were going to get shot at. She had her doubts that whatever they used to move the three of them was going to end up being the pinnacle of safety. 

Of all the things that it could have been, why did it have to be that?

She looked at Felix directly. “What kind of raid?”

“Nothing big.” He replied with a shrug. “Take out a few Feds and make it look like the New Republic figured out the Federal Army’s movements. I’ll be there to sell the story.” 

It made sense. Despite everything and much to Carolina’s chagrin it made sense. 

“So we’re just trying to scare them?”

“Pretty much.” Felix said. “We’re not looking to kill the Reds and Blues, come on, we aren’t  _ monsters _ here. Just making it so that dear Donny Doyle has no choice but to listen to what Locus wants.” He shrugged. “Point is, when it’s time to go I’m taking your squad because you two don’t immediately make me want to embed a knife into one of your eye sockets. Be ready to shoot in a straight line.” 

Coyote let out a snort as a response. “Guess you’ll have to do the same thing.” She muttered, glancing down at the bottles in the mercenary's hands. 

Felix frowned. “Yeah.” He muttered. “Guess I’ll have to save this stuff for a mission celebration. After we take out a couple of Feds.” 

Carolina said nothing. 

“I’ll be seeing you soon, ladies.” Felix said, giving them both a little nod. “Now do me a little favor and try to keep a low profile for me, sound good?” 

“Sure.” Coyote mumbled. 

“Yes, sir.” Carolina replied, mind already racing with thousands of possibilities for what was going to happen. 

Epsilon too was beginning to run anxious simulations, flickering to Theta purple in his on-HUD avatar far more often than Carolina liked. 

Of all the things that it could have been, why did it have to be a raid on the transport that was moving her friends?

It couldn’t have been a test, could it? 

If it was, Carolina wasn’t entirely certain that it was one which she was actually capable of passing. 

It was a sadist’s game, plain and simple.

* * *

“So are you going to at least tell me where you two went?” Darnoldson gently interrogated Carolina as she turned her rifle over on her desk. She was just hoping to get some last second checks to be sure it would work properly before it was time to go. “Because covering for you two wasn’t easy.” 

“We went to Armonia.” Carolina told her squad leader, checking back over her shoulder to be certain they were alone. “Small supply run. Nothing big.” 

Darnoldson wrinkled his nose at the suggestion. “You two still should have let us know before you left.” 

It was true, even though Carolina couldn’t find herself regretting it  _ that  _ deeply. 

She’d gotten valuable information, even if it was about to be rendered somewhat useless in one go.

“It was better that we went alone.” She replied, beginning to unscrew the scope where it was mounted. Based on the way that Felix had described the mission that was soon to be at hand, hanging back in the treetops was a likely tactic. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” Darnoldson grumbled bitterly. “Heard that one before. I believe you, I’m just… not happy I guess. Getting constantly undermined gets old, and that's every day for me.” 

And  _ oh, _ how Carolina could relate on that front. 

Carolina began to take the scope apart. All she needed to do was clean it, but she was starting to feel so under the microscope that her hands wanted to shake. Epsilon interrupted the feeling though, choosing then to sink down into her nerves and steady them in whatever way he could. 

Delta used to do the same thing for York, Carolina knew. Especially when York was deep in a lock of some sort. York had always carried on like he absolutely hated it, but Carolina had learned not to believe the act. He just didn’t want people knowing that he wasn’t as solid as he’d been before losing his eye. 

It wasn’t the same thing, but Epsilon helped all the same. 

“Has Felix talked to you?” Carolina asked her team leader. “About this mission?” 

“A little.” Darnoldson sighed, successfully distracted for the moment. “You know us getting chosen for this mission is punishment for you and Coyote running off, right?”

“I figured.” 

“Good.” Darnoldson muttered. “Just… don’t be surprised if he decides to be more of a dick to you than he usually is. It wouldn’t exactly be out of character for him to be as difficult as possible.” 

It was unsurprising, if nothing else. “How routine is this sort of mission?”

“Not!” Darnoldson answered her, practically wringing his hands nervously as he stood there at Carolina’s side. “Usually the only way we have to do something like this is because one of the generals aren’t listening. Not because something happened and the mercs have no time to gain control without things getting—” 

He watched Carolina snap the cleaned scope back into place. 

“Weird.” Darnoldson finished, still hesitating. “You’re going to be ready? I mean, I know you guys just got off of a fake vacation, but—”

“ _ Supply run.” _ Carolina corrected, if only for the sake of the cover story. “I’ll be fine. So will Coyote. If we don’t have our shit together, make us do as many drills as you want. We’ll be able to handle it.” 

Darnoldson nodded along, anxious and unsure of himself. 

“I don’t like it.” He confessed. “But fine. You can handle yourself. We’ll see how this goes.” 

“So we will.” Carolina replied, setting her mind back to the task of cleaning the rifle. 

* * *

Felix didn’t depart from Outpost Echo with the squad. He’d chosen to ride on ahead for the sake of establishing a route that Locus was planning to bring the Reds and Blues down.It wasn’t anything special, just a bit of extra scouting and reconnaissance that he no doubt complained about the  _ entire _ time.

Regardless, it left the rest of the squad an extra thirty minutes to get there, all piled into a single Warthog as usual. 

Carolina was on edge. She felt jittery in all the worst ways, almost sick to her stomach because all that she could think about was how Wash, Donut, and Sarge were going to be getting  _ shot at _ . She had a theory that none of them would be allowed outside of whatever transport cells they were being kept in, but couldn’t be sure. 

If there were even transport cells. She  _ sincerely _ hope that they did.

If they were let free and into the line of fire, Carolina had every intention of turning on her teammates to save her friends.

She was only infiltrating Outpost Echo for the sake of the Reds and Blues. 

Darnoldson, Coyote, and McTavish were enemies. Locus was an enemy. Felix was an enemy. 

She couldn’t let herself forget it, not even for a second. 

Felix had left Darnoldson with a pinged location for them to park the Warthog at. Once it was in position and covered, they were meant to walk to another set of co-ordinates. They’d be separated into a few different sniper’s nests. 

From there, they were meant to take out as many people as possible. 

As things were, the only one that had access to the actual plans was Darnoldson, mostly because Felix had decided that Carolina and Coyote were momentarily untrustworthy. Which, given that they’d been chosen for the mission as a punishment was fair.

Coyote parked the Warthog, and turned her head to check in with Darnoldson. “This it?”

“Yeah.” He said, sounding unsure of himself but also like he was making a valiant effort at keeping his shit together for the sake of the mission. “Circle up. The caravan’s going to be coming through in—”

“One hour.” Felix’s voice interrupted him before he could even get a chance to finish. “How nice of you assholes to make it on time.” He looked between the four of them. “At least, that's what Locs is saying right now, and you know how my partner likes to be so  _ punctual _ .” 

He looked to Coyote, then pointed off toward the peak of the hill. “Nothing to hide you. Run your camo and stick to the shadows.” 

It earned an annoyed tip of Coyote’s helmet before she went off to the location that had been marked on the map for her. 

“Alright.” Felix mumbled. “McTavish, stay with the car, would you?”

If the younger soldier was about to make a protest, he certainly didn’t go ahead and do so. He simply bowed his head, turned on his heel, and began the walk back to the Warthog. Carolina wasn’t sure if he’d done something wrong, but if she had to guess Felix either overheard one of the many less than savory rumors that McTavish loved to engage in. 

That left her and Darnoldson without assignments yet given. 

Felix looked to Darnoldson. “There’s a nest at the entrance of the pass. Plenty of cover. You should make yourself comfortable and be on comms. Since you’re the one supposedly calling the shots and all.”

Darnoldson looked  _ a little _ bit like Felix had just chosen to reach out and slap him for no reason. But he simply chose to shoulder his rifle. “One hour?”

“Less now.” Felix scoffed. “Now get going. We’ll talk when it’s showtime.” 

Carolina wondered how intentional it was that Felix would leave her as the last one to get an assignment. 

The odds were that it was some sort of elaborate punishment on Felix’s part. It was entirely possible that he was just trying to fuck with her in the aftermath of her and Coyote’s joyride. It would certainly explain why he was so short with Coyote. It definitely explained why he’d put her somewhere with next to no cover.

What it didn’t explain was why he was still there. 

“You and me, McCallister,” He began, sleazy and relaxed, “Have a  _ very  _ special spot picked out.” He placed a hand on her shoulder and used it to turn Carolina slowly so that she faced a certain position in the valley. “I’m sure that you can appreciate my need to keep an eye on the new girl. It’s really nothing personal.” 

_ Liar _ , Carolina thought but didn’t dare voice. 

“I understand.” She muttered back to him, shouldering the rifle as she did so. “I guess we should just head over there.” 

Felix kept his hand on her shoulder though, doing what he could to keep her in place so that Carolina couldn’t simply head off on her own. 

Her skin began to crawl at the realization that he was simply trying to rein her in. 

“Sir?”

“Listen.” He mumbled, volume dropping as he leaned in close, just close enough that he was next to the mic on one side of Carolina’s helmet. “I don’t know what you were up to, Carolina, but you’ve made a lot of trouble. You’ve gotta excuse me for keeping you on a tight leash. I’m pissed at Coyote but she's also been here a hell of a long longer than you have.” 

Cold fury began to settle down in Carolina’s bones. At least she wasn’t going to have to be humiliated in front of her teammates. She swallowed. “I understand, sir.” She mumbled. “Should we go?”

Felix snorted. “Yeah. In a moment.” 

He brushed her off and walked to the Warthog, just checking that there was extra ammo that he could take with him. Carolina waited, and when it was time to get going, she followed after Felix. 

The mercenary lead her across the valley, over the relatively well traveled road that divided the valley. Felix was relaxed and calm, practically not even caring about what he was doing. Carolina practically suspected that Felix was talking to Locus on a private channel. 

He didn’t bother with her, not until they were up on the top of the hill where there were a couple of large rocks. There was a nest that had already been constructed, which made Carolina wonder about it. She took a breath and looked down at it. 

“Did you just set this up?”

“Nah.” Felix replied, leaning against the rock on the side that faced away from the road. “The road gets monitored regularly. This is one of Locus' usual nests. He’s been so kind as to let us  _ borrow _ it for the day.” 

Epsilon conveniently used that information to mark the location on Carolina’s on HUD map. Carolina knelt down on the nest and began to set the sniper rifle up with its stand so that she could prepare to fire when the time came. 

Felix watched her, uncaring. “You think you know how this is going to go, right?’ He prodded her. ”Your little team leader is going to make sure that everyone knows when to get going.“ 

Carolina nodded. Epsilon had set a timer on her HUD to count down to when the transport was supposedly going to be coming down the road. She had plenty of time to get ready for what was going to come. 

According to the timer, she had close to 42 minutes before she could be certain that her friends were going to getting fired on. That meant 42 minutes before she had to worry about potentially throwing herself into the middle of the fight because there was absolutely no way that Wash, Donut, and Sarge were going to end up being armed. 

She glanced up at Felix out of the corner of her eye. He was watching her. Like he wanted to take her apart at the limbs. 

“And you intend to interfere.” 

“Yeah.” Felix scoffed. “When the time comes. As far as Kimball is concerned, I’m out here doing a scouting mission. Whatever I find is what I happened to run into while on the road.”

“So you’re coordinating all of this with Locus?” Carolina asked, reaching out to wobble the sniper rifle where it was sitting in front of her. It didn’t budge at all, so she could at least be certain that it was safe to use. “This seems like a risky plan.”

He let out a little snort. “Me and Locs are used to risky. We’ve done shit like this enough times that we don’t have anything to reasonably worry about.” He shook his head. “I mean, come on new girl, we’re  _ professionals _ . What did you expect?”

Carolina said nothing. 

His head tilted so that he could stare down at her. “McCallister.” 

“Yes?”

“Why’d you to go Armonia?” His voice was deadly serious. 

“It was a joy ride.” Carolina replied, for lack of a better way of explaining it. “That’s all.” 

Felix seemed skeptical. “Hear anything about the break in while you were there?”

“No.” 

He shook his head. “I’m so fucking sick of having to deal with fucking Locus’ paranoia over this shit.” He tilted his head back. “Be ready to really prove yourself here new girl. Locus may have approved you for our ranks, but as far as he’s concerned you’re on pretty fucking thin ice.” 

Carolina swallowed. “You say that like he thinks I’m up to something.” 

“He always thinks people are up to something.” Felix muttered. “Point is, if my job is to babysit you today, I don’t exactly have much choice in the matter. What happens if I don’t is Locus gets more pissy than he is usually. I’m sure you can understand exactly why we don’t want that.”

Carolina turned her head toward him. “And what do you think?”

“I think you went on a joyride to get booze and get laid.” Felix said matter-of-factly. “I mean, come on.” He stared her down. “You’re just the new girl. Just because you can punch and shoot straight that doesn’t mean that you’re  _ competent. _ If you were competent we would have upgraded you to the top by now. But—” He smirked, the radio on both of their helmets crackling to life at once. 

“As things are, you’re just at the bottom of the pyramid under an idiot’s command. Such a shame.” And Carolina could practically  _ picture  _ the particular brand of shit-eating grin that he was probably wearing under her stomach. It was the kind that made her kind of want to punch him, if only because it was so clear that he was doing it to try and get under her skin. 

And goddamnit if it wasn’t  _ working. _

She felt a little like she was going insane every time she was around Felix. 

Maybe if he didn’t feel the need to try so damn hard at it, she would have been less irked. 

Carolina glanced up at him though, just out of the corner of her visor. “You seem confident this will work.” 

“It's planned.” Felix shrugged, too relaxed by far. “See, all we’ve got to do is put a little fear into the Feds. The General’s a coward so once I show my face and a couple soldiers have gotten taken out he’ll fall straight into Locus’ plans. After that, whatever Locus decides to do with the Reds and Blues is what he decides to do. Nobody’s likely to question it as long as there isn’t another break-in.”

As much as Carolina hated to admit it (and goddamn, how she  _ hated _ to admit it,) Felix had a point. She'd managed to blow it once. As long as she didn’t do it again, that wouldn’t happen again. 

She just had to be willing to accept that her friends were going to be left to suffer for some time first. Carolina turned her head slowly, just enough to look at Felix directly. “What happens if it fails?”

Felix let out a little snort. “Locs has contingency plans. Worst comes to worst, we set up an assassination. It’s not hard, we’ve done it tons of times. Got that shit about down to an art form at this point.” 

Carolina stared down at the rifle that was set out just in front of her. It was waiting for her to practically take part in a killing herself. Begging for her to lie down with it like a lover, pull the trigger, watch something die across the valley. 

“Right.” She whispered, disquiet settling in the pit of her stomach.

Felix though, he was too easy. Too relaxed, like he was at home in the place where the two of them currently were standing. “Just keep it together, new girl.” Felix said easily. “We need to know that you’re capable of doing your job.” 

She could do her job. Carolina repeated it to herself like a mantra, knowing full well that  _ doing her job _ was going to mean pulling the trigger on people that had no idea she was even there. On people that had absolutely no quarrel with her. 

People she was meant to be protecting. 

What choice did she even have?

“Yes sir,” Carolina muttered darkly, taking the position next to the rifle, checking the timer on her HUD, and waiting.


	11. Diversions (2)

“Entering the valley in seven.” Locus’ voice grumbled over the secure radio frequency. Carolina shifted uncomfortably, wondering whether or not it was going to whoever was in charge of the Federal Army at the same time. Seven minutes was a definite timeline, but it wasn’t one that accounted for accidental delays. 

Felix had insisted that it wouldn’t be longer than an hour before the chaos started. It certainly felt like it had longer than an hour. 

At Carolina’s side he shifted and nodded to her. In the process, he picked up his own rifle where he’d laid it behind the stone. Actually, with the way that Felix carried on it was fairly obvious that he was simply uncaring toward how the actual mission ended up going in the long run. Or like he was expecting for everyone else there to carry more of the weight than he needed to. 

“Copy.” Felix said cockily. “Try to make it fun for me? You know I’ve been itching to get some action.” 

“Ugh,  _ gross. _ ” McTavish’s voice came in over the radio, followed quickly by Darnoldson telling him to shut up. 

“Say something like that again, McTavish, and I’m going to really enjoy skinning your fingers. You’re right handed, right?” Felix asked, stepping out to the edge of the hill so that he could look down at the road. “Just worry about getting it going, Locs. We’ve got eyes for when you get here.” 

“Good.” With that, Locus logged off of the line and Carolina took a deep breath. 

“If it makes you feel better-” Epsilon chose then to pipe his voice in over her radio, on a private line where nobody else could have heard him. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got the wind speed and everything accounted for. If you want to intentionally miss shots, it should be easy.” 

And god how she  _ wanted _ to thank Epsilon. Just because Felix was there, just because he was going to be watching, that didn’t mean that the assists were strictly unnecessary. She could by all means go ahead and take full advantage of them. She could ensure that she never hit a single target. 

She  _ could _ , but at the great risk of jeopardizing herself. 

Felix turned slowly to face her. “Your squad leader knows what he’s doing, even if he is a fucking idiot just like the rest of you space pirates.” He shrugged. “He’ll give you a sign to open fire. Just do me and Locus a fucking favor and don’t hit the cargo, got it?”

“Got it.” Carolina echoed, knowing full well that she wouldn’t dare allow herself to hit the cargo. 

_ Cargo. _

Those were her  _ friends, _ not just cargo.

Felix perked up. “And they're coming around the bend. Showtime, new girl. Break a leg.” He laughed. “Actually,  _ I’m _ the only one performing here. And I deserve a fucking Oscar for the shit I’m about to pull off here.” 

Carolina said nothing, just settled and prepared to fire on the valley down below.

The caravan of vehicles came around the bend. It looked like a simple row of them, three vehicles deep. The first two were full of people, all probably carrying supplies since their purpose was guarding the Reds and Blues that were being carried in the central vehicle. 

Wash, Sarge, and Donut were no doubt being kept inside of what was one of the only completely covered vehicles on Chorus. No chance of them getting shot, no chance of them getting seen that way. 

All that there was to take aim on were white-clad soldiers, with helmets like targets. 

Driving alongside the caravan on a single mongoose which Carolina had seen countless times before was Locus. Armed for a fight but also likely completely unprepared for one since he knew that he would be safe in the long term of things. 

A shot rang out through the valley. Carolina watched down her scope as one of the soldiers in the last of the three Warthogs fell, their helmet’s visor blown open from the back. If not for the range, it would have been identified easily as  _ execution style. _

“NEWS!” One of the five remaining soldiers shouted to the others. Almost immediately the rest of them were scrambling out of their respective Warthogs and rushing to set up defensive positions. Locus by contrast, climbed off of his Mongoose quickly and faded away to nothing with the simple activation of his camo unit. 

The Fed soldiers looked like they were about ready to open fire on the hills. Carolina was  _ glad _ that she was well-hidden and low to the ground. 

“Do you see anything?” One of the soldiers shouted. 

“Negative!” Another replied. Carolina recognized their voice from the little prison break that she’d taken part in. Maybe there was a standard set of soldiers that had been selected for contact with the Reds and Blues. “Radioing—”

Carolina took a deep breath and fired, the shouting soldier’s head in her crosshairs. She watched as he dropped to the ground, lifeless. 

“Very good.” Felix muttered into a shared signal to her, voice honey-sweet in her ears. “Always new you were good for something, new girl.” With that he climbed to the top of the hill and made himself as visible as possible, puffing his chest out as all of the soldiers took aim on him. 

From where she was, Carolina couldn’t see any sign of Locus moving, but she  _ did _ see that the transport vehicle had just been re-commandeered and was already on its way out of there. 

“Shit!” One of the remaining four soldiers cried as they scrambled to fill the position that Carolina had just vacated in their formation. “Felix!”

“Hey, kiddos.” Felix said too easily, aiming down his sights at one of them. “Nice seeing you today.” He fired, and the kid  _ (god, they couldn’t have been any older than teenagers) _ dropped lifelessly. “I should let you know, this road? Really not so great. Never know what kind of unsavory characters are on it.” 

The three remaining soldiers shifted into a tighter formation. It was obvious enough that the three of them were considering trying to take their Warthog and run. A shot rang out in the valley and the one furthest from Carolina collapsed. 

Only two were left. 

Carolina then realized just what sort of game Felix was playing. 

He was playing for the theatrics of the situation and absolutely nothing else. 

Locus had gotten what he’d needed.

“That’s enough.” Felix called into the radios, and Carolina heard a few muttered confirmations that they were done. The two of the soldiers stared each other in the eyes, shocked that they were still alive and then opened fired on Felix.

For some reason that was beyond Carolina’s powers of comprehension, she almost felt  _ afraid _ when it started. Felix though took the opportunity, his blue hard light shield appearing in front of him, seemingly supported by his outstretched fingers and absolutely nothing else. 

And he  _ laughed. _

“Yeah, that's not going to work.” Felix muttered. “Tell me what you guys had in the Warthog there, and I might even let you two go. Let you send Doyle my love. Maybe my business card while I’m at it, in case he’s willing to pay up for two mercs instead of one.” 

“We won’t tell you that!” One of the two panicked soldiers shouted back at Felix. “We can’t—”

Felix raised a hand as a signal for someone to shoot, and Carolina took it, opening fire on the one that was presently protesting against Felix’s request. She was  _ pretty _ sure that was the one that he wanted dead, after all. 

He laughed and looked down at the other one. “I’ll let you go.” He muttered. “But you tell Doyle that this road is New Republic territory. And we won’t hesitate to kill anyone that tries to take it. Armonia can starve. Unless of course, Doyle’s willing to make a surrender. In which case, you tell him that he should call me.”

The soldier that was left seemed to quake, looking to the two Warthogs and Locus’ mongoose. They even began to head towards one but Felix fired a shot off at their feet. 

“Nah.” He laughed at them. “You can walk. These are ours now.” 

The young soldier shot Felix a panicked look and backed up, unsure of where to go before turning and breaking off in a sprint in the same direction that it had looked like Locus was going off in with the Warthog. Carolina watched him, careful to keep her rifle trained on the soldier the entire tie until they had eventually dipped out of sight. 

Without warning, Felix began to laugh. 

“Christ, did you see that shit?” He asked, already relaxing into nothing as he pressed his fingertips to the side of his helmet. “Coast is clear. Get the Warthogs and get them back to your Outpost. We’re done here for now.” 

“Sir?” McTavish spoke into the mic, already beginning to emerge from across the valley. “You’re not gonna have the place trapped?”

“Nah.” Felix replied, considering. “Let me take care of that. Have to make shit look legitimate for the New Republic after all.” 

Carolina sat up straight and began to pack away her rifle, unsure of what else there was that she could do in that moment. She'd done her job. She’d killed three soldiers, ones that weren’t even very old to begin with. Felix was carrying on like there was absolutely nothing wrong in the universe. 

Somewhere else, Locus was undoubtedly doing the same. 

Felix turned slowly though to look back at her. “Nice work there, Carolina.” He told her. Carolina wasn’t entirely certain that she could remember the last time that he’d chosen to call her Carolina instead of ‘new girl’ or ‘McCallister.’

“Thanks.” She replied as she packed the rifle back away to the way that it had been before she'd needed to set up. “Hope it was good enough.” 

Felix scoffed and looked down at the carnage below. “You did good enough. For a new girl, I mean.” He eyed her, stance almost lazy and relaxed as he did so. “I mean, you took out half of them on your own I’m pretty sure. That’s not exactly nothing.” 

Her stomach churned at the mention of it. In a way, Carolina could practically  _ feel _ Epsilon beginning to stew over what had just happened. He wasn’t any more happy about it than she was, and Carolina wasn’t entirely sure that she could go being upset at the AI about it. 

“I did my best.”

Felix  _ laughed. _ “Well your best is pretty good. I mean, Locs sounded impressed with his little evaluation of you, so I’m not surprised but.” He stared her down, and Carolina couldn’t help the slightly fleeting feeling that there was something almost playful about the way that he did it. “It makes me want to take you out for a spin for real.”

And  _ god _ , why did he have to phrase it like that?

Carolina stood up tall, the rifle slung over her shoulder. Maybe, she wondered, the best way to combat Felix’s  _ felix-ness _ was to simply play on his court. On his terms. 

“I can’t really tell if the innuendo was intentional.” 

Felix paused, staring her down in a way which almost actually reminded Carolina of  _ Locus _ of all people. “And to think, I was thinking that you were just oblivious.” 

“I’m not.” Carolina replied curtly. “But you can’t blame me for not being sure.” 

Behind his helmet, Carolina was certain he was smirking. 

“How about this?” Felix asked her teasingly. “Try meeting me in the vehicle bay tonight after… let’s say eleven. Show up and I can show you just how serious I am about it.” 

That wasn’t good. That was  _ far _ from good. 

_ Don’t you fucking dare _ , Epsilon prodded her ruthlessly, with a sensation that was like something actively trying to stab into her spine itself.  _ You need to remember the goddamn mission! Eye on the prize! _

_ I’ve got my eye on the prize, _ Carolina thought, already mentally accepting Felix’s invitation.  _ I needed to get into the inner circle. This could be my best chance. _

Epsilon seemed to get so enraged that she felt him go offline with a huff, leaving Carolina’s head feeling empty and dead silent. 

He’d have to get over it, Carolina decided. She had work to do. 

* * *

The Warthogs were transported back to Outpost Echo, stripped down to the barest essentials so that anything  _ useful _ couldn’t be used by the New Republic, and then driven back out to the road by a separate team of space pirates. From what Carolina could tell, their job was to be occasional infiltrators within the New Republic. Felix couldn’t do  _ everything _ by himself, after all. Locus probably had a squad that did the same within the Federal Army, if Carolina had to guess. 

Either way, it left the rest of them with some downtime. 

Downtime which Carolina had to spend quietly ignoring a sulking Epsilon, all while he wanted  _ nothing  _ to do with her. It didn’t make for a pleasant situation, nor had it ever. In truth, it was one of those things which Carolina genuinely never wanted to have to deal with. 

Back when she’d still had Eta and Iota, she’d never had to deal with them sulking really. She knew that many of her freelancer counterparts had needed to suffer such a thing at one point or another, but she’d been fortunate. She’d never had to deal with the twins, as indistinct as they were from each other in the oddest way, sulking. 

_ (She’d had to deal with the two of them screaming. She’d had to deal with them actively trying to pry themselves apart from each other, from her, from their own code.)  _

Carolina could practically imagine Epsilon telling her not to remind her of it. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant memory for anyone that had been involved. Epsilon felt it differently than Delta or Theta had. But it still hurt. 

She silently apologized to her partner, even though he was still being quiet. He was angry at her for killing three people. 

She was angry too, especially because those people  _ hadn’t deserved it _ . But she was on a mission, and it was an important one. 

McTavish had invited her to eat their dinner together in the mess area, but the idea of the mostly-sludge that they’d be served wasn’t appetizing. She turned him down, since she had her doubts that it would make her feel any better about how the day had gone. It had been nice of him to come to her, of course. But it just wasn’t what she needed. 

Coyote hadn’t said anything to her since the mission. That wasn’t a surprise though, since Coyote and her were still going to have to talk about Armonia at some point. 

God, how Carolina wasn’t looking forward to  _ that _ one. 

But the time passed, slow and unforgiving as it was.

When it was ten minutes to eleven, Carolina left her barrack to go to the vehicle bay to see Felix. 

God, Epsilon was never going to forgive her. 

What an absolute shitshow of a fucking day.

The doors to the vehicle bay were closed. Probably because Felix wanted to keep anyone from being able to see in and find what he was up to. Not that Carolina could blame him, especially considering what exactly had been implied by Felix’s invitation. 

What the hell was she even doing?

Carolina approached the normal human door and knocked on it, hopeful that Felix would simply answer her on his own. If she needed to she had the access codes that she would need to get inside, but Carolina didn’t exactly want to have to go through that. 

Thankfully, the door opened without her having to say so much as a word to the man that was on the other side. 

Felix and her had come out to the vehicle bay in mostly the same state.

Standard fatigues, no reason for either of them to be dressed up any more than they needed to be. But aside from the pants that were the same, Felix wore an orange t-shirt with his own personal insignia printed on the front, which oddly enough matched the stencil on his helmet. Carolina on the other hand wore an athletic tank, in her favorite shade of blue. 

He looked her up and down, almost greedily. 

“Hey there, Carolina.” He smirked. “So nice of you to show up.” 

“Right.” Carolina rolled her eyes and pulled the door shut behind her. “I was kind of worried that you wouldn’t show.” 

Felix scoffed. “Me?” He joked. “Never. You know how hard it is finding decent companionship on this shithole of planet? It’s fucking impossible.” 

Never mind that Carolina was  _ pretty  _ sure that she knew for a fact that Felix and Locus were sleeping together. At the very least, she’d witnessed more than she should have which suggested as much. There was something there, which only made her  _ wonder _ what she was actually doing. 

What was Felix even doing, if that was going on?

“I believe you.” Carolina said, thinking back to Coyote. Coyote had been decent. Coyote wasn’t likely to be anything resembling a sustainable thing even in the semi-long term. “Kind of surprised you’d invite me.” 

Felix relaxed against a couch that Carolina had never noticed, shoved into the corner of the vehicle bay. “It’s like I said earlier.” He scoffed. “You don’t make me want to tear my hair out. Can’t say that for anyone else around here.”

Carolina seated herself on the couch next to the mercenary, sure to give him the room to stretch out since she had a feeling of what she’d be dealing with if she didn’t. “Well, I can’t say I don’t appreciate the compliment.” 

Felix let out a little snort, allowing his leg to fall so that their thighs rested together. “It’s not like you aren’t easy on the eyes.” He shrugged, focusing in on her and his eyes turning into slits almost like he was concentrating. “And you can keep secrets.” 

Carolina blinked. 

_ Oh. _

That was why he'd pick her. 

“It didn’t seem like it was worth it to tell anyone.” 

“Yeah, well I appreciate it.” Felix leaned in close to her, in a way that made her wonder whether or not he was the same as York was. York, who had been forever tactile, who had always wanted to be the center of attention. York who wanted nothing more than to touch be touched, to see and be seen. 

In a way, she could see a lot of similarities. More than Carolina was strictly comfortable with.

Felix shook her from her thoughts though, with little more than a touch to the cheek as he turned her head so that she looked at him directly. 

He had hazel eyes. 

“Look,” He mumbled to her. “You ran off with Coyote. For stress relief, right?”

“Right.” Carolina whispered back to him, a little more than unsure of what to say. 

“Did it happen?” Suddenly there was a sharp edge to Felix’s voice, to his touch. “You find your relief?”

“Nothing happened.” She admitted, even though it was dangerous to do so. “It didn’t work out.” 

And goddamn if Felix didn’t manage to look at least a  _ little _ amused by it. Like he’s just had a gift thrown into his lap in the weirdest way. 

“Is that so?” Felix hummed, as playful as he was simply trying to worm his way under her skin. “Well I guess that your little road trip was a waste then.” 

Carolina rolled her eyes. “We got booze.” 

“And that only dulls the pain so much, right?” He scoffed, pulling his hand away from her in a way that managed to near being violent. “What a damn shame.” 

Carolina tilted her head though, putting her gaze back onto Felix even though he didn’t seem to actively want it the same way that he had mere seconds before. “Is there any reason that you’re so concerned about it,  _ sir?” _

Felix seemed to stiffen for a millisecond before he turned his eyes back onto her with forced nonchalance. Ease that she couldn’t dare think did anything other than betray that he was curious. Maybe even  _ interested. _

“Nah,” He scoffed. “No reason. Just being in an active war zone like this makes for one asshole of a dry spell. I’m not pretending like I’m not fed up, unlike the rest of the assholes around here.” 

And there it was. 

Goddamnit, her life was so fucked. 

She smirked at him, since she had a feeling that the best way to respond to Felix was in kind. “And am I supposed to think that’s some sort of proposition?”

Just like that, all at once, Felix relaxed into himself. His expression split into a wide grin. He leaned in close to her, close enough that Carolina could smell the peppermint toothpaste on his breath (and Carolina had so many questions as to where he’d managed to get peppermint toothpaste on Chorus. Any toothpaste, really. Carolina would have killed for some decent toothpaste.)

“What?” He asked her, his voice turning buttery smooth. “It almost sounds like you might be interested, Private McCallister.” 

Carolina stared back at him, the sharp planes of his face, the mussed brown hair that still managed to be a little  _ too  _ perfect even when it wasn’t completely groomed down into place. For the first time she noticed that there was some silver that had made its way into his hair, just light enough that it was only noticeable up close. 

There was a crook to his noise, a spot where there had clearly been a break years before. Up by the corner of his left eye there was the silver line of scar tissue, and another spot in his eyebrow that managed to tell a story of some sort. A barfight perhaps. Either way, Carolina could bet that he’d taken a few fists to the face at some point to get that sort of damage. 

In the oddest, most imperfect way, he was  _ handsome. _

Either that or she herself was pent up from the mission and hadn’t had a chance to deal with it. 

It  _ had  _ been a while. 

In hindsight, it was definitely a  _ very _ good thing that Epsilon was still offline. She didn’t even want to imagine what kind of migraine he’d inflict her with for even  _ thinking _ about it. 

It was what needed to be done for the mission, Carolina reminded herself against all good logic. 

“So let’s say I say yes.” She said, narrowing her eyes at Felix and leaning back in a way that made her feel more relaxed on the couch. “How do I know you don’t go bragging about how you hooked up with the new girl.” 

“I am  _ very _ discreet.” Felix murmured back to her as he leaned in close to her. “So is that a yes, or—”

They both jolted to attention as the door to the vehicle bay slammed shut behind whoever had decided to interrupt the two of them. Whoever it was, they had decided to do so rather unceremoniously. And also in a manner which made it clear that they didn’t care that the two of them were busy with something. 

Carolina and Felix’s heads both snapped to the door, where Locus was standing. He was the only one of the three of them that was in full armor, and even though Carolina wasn’t sure whether she needed to be concerned about him, it set off alarm bells in her head. 

In an instant, Carolina felt her heart drop down into her stomach. 

Things were about to get  _ bad. _

All at once, it was becoming clear what an absolute mistake agreeing to join Felix was. 

God, what had she even been  _ thinking? _

She even knew that Locus and Felix had some sort of thing going on between the two of them. Why would she have ever taken Felix’s invitation when she already knew that was an issue? 

“Locs.” Felix greeted his partner, with an odd relaxed tone to his voice. “Pleasure seeing you here so late.” He turned with his entire body, smirking all the while. Like Locus had just walked into some sort of  _ very _ strange ambush. 

“What are you doing?” Locus asked. “You should be reporting back to Kimball.” Locus’ head turned slightly so that he could focus his gaze on Carolina. She didn’t have to see his eyes behind the visorless mask of his helmet to know that he was staring at her. “And it’s past curfew for the troops.” 

She needed to get the fuck out of there before something weird started happening. Instead of getting the chance to move, however, she ended up with Felix’s hand on her thigh,  _ squeezing _ hard enough that Carolina halfway expected it to bruise. 

Holding her in place. 

He wanted her to stay there with him, for reasons which Carolina couldn’t even  _ begin _ to comprehend. 

What the actual fuck.

“Kimball will be fine.” Felix scoffed. “She knows the expect me to be fashionably late as usual.” 

“Unprofessional.”

Felix cocked his head to the side. “And how’d your little meeting with Donny Doyle do? He still pissing himself every time he sees you?”

“He’s satisfied.” Locus grumbled his response. “The assets are still alive and the soldiers  _ you _ had killed were deemed acceptable losses.” 

“Sounds like a mission well done, then.” Felix snorted. “Where’d you move the idiots to anyways? It'd sure as hell make my life a little easier to know.” 

He still hadn’t moved his hand off of Carolina’s leg. If anything, he’d only drawn it upwards in a show of what felt like  _ possession. _

“Outpost 17-B.” Locus responded, much more easily than Carolina expected. “For now they are secure.” 

Felix grinned. “I’ll be sure to keep the bad information flowing, then.” 

Locus also hadn’t moved. He simply stood by the door, probably unsure of what he was even supposed to do with himself. Whatever social cues  _ had _ previously existed in that situation, Carolina didn’t know what they were. 

“You are certain that Kimball is not suspicious?”

“Positive.” Felix laughed and stretched himself out, without a care in the universe. “She’s eating out of the palms of my hands. There’s nothing to worry about. She’s not a problem. Besides, we both know what happens when she starts being one.” 

“If you insist.” 

Carolina glanced between the two men. The tension between the two of them was thick enough that it would have probably taken a chainsaw to even begin to cut into it. But she wasn’t going to be able to do anything to even  _ begin  _ to escape it and she knew it. Not as long as Felix was determined to keep a hand on her thigh. 

“Should I go?” She asked, speaking up for the first time since Locus had made his appearance in the first place. “I mean—”

“No.” Locus ordered her. “Stay.” 

“Yeah, new girl.” Felix leaned in close to her, practically hissing the words into her ear. “ _ Stay. _ ” He squeezed her thigh, tight enough that Carolina couldn’t help the tiny wince that made its way onto her features. “I’m pretty sure Locs has already figured out what we were up to. And might even be realizing that he was  _ really fucking unwelcome. _ ”

Locus’ head jerked back slightly, like he was shooting Felix a look behind the matte visor. 

Felix’s expression flattened in irritation. “It’s almost like  _ this is a conversation we’ve had before. _ ”

Locus failed to react visibly. 

“I fucking hate you.” Felix muttered under his breath. “This is the fucking Unicorn all over again.”

“Unicorn?” Carolina asked, not entirely sure what she'd just missed.

Felix rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about it. The Unicorn is strictly on a  _ need to know basis.” _

Locus stared at Felix. “The ‘Unicorn’ was the direct result of your own negligence.” 

“Asshole.” Felix hissed back. “Blaming me for fucking everything when it’s all  _ clearly _ your fault.”

Locus shook his head. “McCallister, out.” He ordered, and Carolina gently did what she could to pull herself away from Felix, it only to make sure that she didn’t find herself in the middle of what was about to happen. She had a strong enough feeling that she didn’t  _ want _ to know what happened next. 

Surprisingly, Felix let her go but never even began to break his glower which he kept locked on Locus the entire time. 

Just as Carolina slipped out the door, she caught the sound of Felix calling Locus a dick.

The less she knew, the better. 

That much Carolina was confident in.


	12. The Gossip

Felix disappeared from Outpost Echo for half a week following the interception of the Fed’s prisoner transport. Locus did the same, and Carolina found herself desperately wishing that she actually knew what was going on with them. After her and Coyote’s little joyride out to Armonia had gone, she couldn’t risk doing the same thing again. Getting caught would probably be a death sentence.

In short, Carolina was  _ fucked. _

If only she could have done something to get through to Wash or any of the other Reds and Blues. Maybe then the anxious itch under her skin would go away.

Carolina spent a day holed up in the armory in the hopes that she could take advantage of the privacy that it provided. 

Epsilon took the chance to stay projected at her shoulder while the two of them parsed over hours upon hours worth of footage. All of it had been collected over the course of the time since she’d arrived at Outpost Echo, not all of it even remotely useful.

Carolina, however, decided to take the chance to do some adjustments on her gear while the two of them were at it. “We know where the Reds and Blues are, right?” 

“Yeah.” Epsilon said, swapping his projected avatar out for a map of Chorus which had been carefully annotated and re-annotated over and over again as they gathered more and more information. “Really sucks because it looks like at least some of them are only about three hours from here.” 

Carolina blinked. “Three hours from here?”

“Yeah.” Epsilon answered her. “Not like we’d be able to get out there.” 

Carolina nodded along, staring down at the visor of her own helmet. There had to be  _ something  _ that they could do. 

Three hours  _ was  _ reachable. Three hours with a vehicle was even easier to do. The only problem was that there was absolutely no way that she’d be able to get out of there without being noticed first. The mercs were off base, but since they were apparently tracking everything that they possibly could, Carolina’s options were thin. 

And then, of course, showing up at a New Republic base to see her friends and getting noticed by Felix would be bad news. 

From what she'd gathered, General Kimball was keeping the Reds and Blues close to her. It only stood to reason that Felix would be there too.

Once again, her hands were tied and there was absolutely nothing that she could do about it. 

She was furious. 

“Epsilon.” Carolina muttered. “Do you know if the training projector is here?”

Epsilon cocked his head to the side and let out the sound of a simulated sigh before he flickered, for just a second. “Yeah, it’s here.” He announced to her. “You’ll need something to move it though.” 

Carolina frowned. “I’m sure a Warthog going out into the dunes for a few hours won’t set off any alarms.” 

Epsilon snorted. “You know, Locus would probably actually  _ like _ that you’re going off to train. I mean, just think about it.” 

He was right.

Goddamnit, he was  _ right. _

_ “ _ I’m doing it.” She said, since she had a feeling that she was going to need  _ literally anything _ to get her on Locus’ good side after the incident in the vehicle bay the week prior. It was better than nothing, and it might theoretically have been enough to get back into both of the mercenaries good graces. 

Although she strongly suspected that Felix would be  _ significantly _ easier to deal with.

She didn’t give Epsilon any time to protest, put her helmet on, and then she was out the door to get the Warthog. 

All she had to do was get into the vehicle bay, which had been left open and at least three Warthogs were already missing at first glance. Of course, the stick shift operated one sat at the back. It certainly wasn’t going anywhere fast, that much was for sure.

She picked out one that was sitting somewhere to the center of the garage, since all of the vehicles in front of it had been cleared out already. Moments later, she was grabbing the keys and pulling out so that she could drive over to the Armory. 

When she got there, someone was standing outside of the armory.

The armor was familiar, even. 

McTavish looked up at her. “Hey, McCallister.” He greeted her. “What’re you doing?”

“Getting the training projector and going to blow off some steam.” Carolina answered truthfully. It wasn’t like McTavish would do anything to fuck with her. He didn’t care enough to, that much was true enough.

“Not a joyride?” McTavish asked. “Sucks. I thought you weren’t boring.” 

“No.” Carolina frowned. “I’m just trying to stay sharp.” 

McTavish stared at the Warthog, considering. “I’m coming with you.”

Carolina blinked. “ _ Why? _ ”

“Because in case you haven’t noticed—” McTavish stared at her straight on, “ _ I kind of suck at this shit. _ ” He reached for his helmet, still the same Recruit’s helm that he’d been wearing on the day that Carolina met him. “And I’ve got a hunch I want to try to follow up on.”

She eyed him but rolled her eyes. “You move the training projector, and I  _ might  _ consider letting you come.” What kind of hunch could he have had? Was he onto her?

McTavish eyed the Warthog. “I just got to get it to the Warthog?”

“Yes.” Carolina snorted. “What’s wrong? Locus has no trouble with it.” 

McTavish’s eyes widened. “You’ve been alone with  _ Locus _ ?”

“No.” Carolina cut him off. “ _ Enough. _ I already know you’re a fucking gossip.”

“I won’t tell.” McTavish muttered. “Guy’d probably kill me anyways.” 

“And you aren’t worried that  _ Felix _ would kill you?” Carolina questioned. Sure as hell seemed like a gap in logic considering the amount that she’d heard about Felix having a little  _ too _ much fun out in the field. The caravan attack had even proven it to Carolina, at least on some level. 

McTavish shrugged. “Felix is a lot of empty threats, until you don't directly benefit him anymore.” He said. “Locus is the one that's a loose cannon.”

And yeah, that seemed wrong.

“He’s obsessed with orders.” Carolina replied. “Sounds like the opposite of a loose cannon to me.”

“No morals.” McTavish replied. “Look, just trust me on it.” 

She wasn’t convinced. Something was missing from McTavish’s assessment. Probably from her own too, for that matter.

“If that was the case, I would have died last week.” Carolina rebuked McTavish. “Also, if you want to come with me to train? You should try moving and getting the fucking projector.” 

He let out a little hiss through his teeth. “You know what?” He muttered. “You’re mean. Maybe sucking is the better outcome.” 

Carolina winced. “I’m not trying to be mean.” 

The look that McTavish gave her a response only told her that he wasn’t exactly convinced. “Yeah, well.” He glanced down at the ground in front of him, and Carolina could practically see him frowning behind his helmet. “I’m disinvited, right?”

Carolina blinked, because she knew that she  _ should  _ have told McTavish as much. But the fact of the matter was that she hadn’t really invited him in the first place.

“Look—” She sighed. “I’d been hoping to get away to train for a bit.”

McTavish cocked his head to the side. “Alone?”

“Alone.” Carolina confirmed. “I’m just… frustrated being here all the time.” 

McTavish sighed. “You won’t be pissed if I still want to come?”

“No.” She mumbled, and that  _ was  _ the truth. McTavish wasn’t the worst, as unimpressive as his military career appeared to be. “But I do still want you to move the projector.”

He looked at the Warthog, and then back at the armory behind him. Considering one last time before he finally made a decision on what he was going to do, if Carolina had to guess. “Fine.” He sighed before he turned for the armory and went in. Carolina watched him disappear for a little under a minute before she made a decision to go in after him. 

Together they dragged the training projecter out and into the Warthog. Once it was there and secured down into place, Carolina took the wheel and McTavish climbed in at shotgun next to her. The company wasn’t exactly what Carolina had been looking for when she'd first decided to go train, but she’d take it. 

Besides, McTavish was right when he said that he needed a chance to train. 

If Carolina was in charge of their squad, she would have whipped him into shape ages before, the same way that she had with Wash back in the day. 

It didn’t quite fill the void of missing her friends, but it could be something at the very least.

* * *

Carolina was surprised by just how comforting the dunes were turning out to be for her. Se never had to doubt that she was able to get privacy out there. She could be as loud as she felt she needed to be, so long as it was within reason. 

She and McTavish realized that they needed to wait a bit before they could really get the training projector going. It was too bright out, at least bright enough that it was too hard to see the targets well enough to go after them with any real sense of efficiency.

It was why Carolina and McTavish sat in the back of the Warthog with the training projector between them, with little more to do than  _ talk _ . 

It had been mostly small talk. The lack of talk that focused specifically on Outpost Echo’s substantial rumor mill was at least a bit of a surprise for Carolina. She'd halfway been expecting for McTavish to go fishing for any information of any sort that could illuminate just what Carolina was doing with the mercs, or with Coyote. Or anything else for that matter. 

But there hadn’t been. 

Instead, McTavish came to her with something much worse. 

“Hey, so…” McTavish said, staring out across the dunes. “I’ve got a question.” 

Carolina turned her head to evaluate him properly. “What kind of question?”

McTavish hesitated, staring down at his hands like he wished that he had something to occupy them. He worried at his palm with his thumb, considering. “About you.”

Carolina blinked. “Okay?”

He hesitated a long moment. “You don’t use the same sort of gear as the rest of us.” McTavis asked, taking long pauses between his words in obvious hesitation. “Do you?”

_ Shit _ . Epsilon was already practically going to every length to set off every alarm in Carolina’s mind and gear possible.  _ How the fuck did he— _

_ “ _ What makes you ask that?” Carolina asked McTavish instead. If he had suspicions, she could at least try and get to the bottom of what they were about before McTavish started feeling emboldened enough that he’d go to the mercs about it. 

He hesitated. “I dunno, it’s just—” His brow furrowed. “Do you remember that mission with Locus? The one where those soldiers showed up and we had to—”

“Yeah.” Carolina cut him off before he could finish the sentence and bring up any more feelings of guilt for her that she didn’t want to have to deal with at all. “I remember it. What about it?”

“You don’t use a cloaking unit.” McTavish said matter of factly. “I mean, not active camo like the rest of us did. I saw you, you didn’t—” He shook his head, probably frowning back behind his helmet all the while. “You didn’t have a shimmer like everyone else did.” 

And yeah, that sounded conclusive enough that Carolina had to start worrying. 

She had options. Killing McTavish to keep him quiet wasn’t one. People would notice too quickly.

She sighed. “Yeah.” She confirmed, after a moments hesitation even though Epsilon was  _ screaming  _ at her not to. “It's some stuff that I had from back when I was still bounty hunting. I figured it was useful enough that It could come with me to Chorus.” 

McTavish seemed skeptical based on the slight shift of his shoulders. “That sort of thing can’t be available on the free market, though.”

“It is if you know where to look.” Carolina retorted. ”Look, it’s...“ She needed to come up with something to keep McTavish quiet. He was the biggest gossip that she’d met since she was back in Project Freelancer. She absolutely couldn’t afford for him to go talking where either of the mercs would be able to hear him talking about it. 

“You know I don’t believe you, right?” McTavish asked. “That shit’s too fancy. I mean, the active camo is one thing, but—”

“It’s actually a bit lower tech than active camo.” Carolina corrected McTavish. “Nobody uses it anymore when there's something better.” 

“Then why are you still using it?” McTavish asked. “I mean, the mercs have active camo units readily available. Ones which we’re even supposed to  _ take _ .” 

Carolina sighed. “I like my gear. I’ve been using it for years.”

McTavish nodded along, still unsure of himself. Carolina let out a heavy sigh, since she wasn’t entirely sure that she’d ever be able to come up with an excuse that McTavish would just take. “I’m just more used to it,” She finally amended her original statement. “There’s no point in fixing what isn’t broken.” 

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” McTavish grumbled. “It just seemed weird to me that you’d be on such different gear.” He looked up at her, locked his gaze onto her and seemed to hesitate for a long moment. “I mean, nobody else has that sort of stuff.” 

Carolina shrugged. “I’m fine with that.”

“Do…” He hesitated, staring over at the training projector. “Do the mercs know about it?”

“If they do none of them have brought it up.” Carolina said with a little sigh. She glanced up at the sky. “Is this the only reason that you wanted to come out here with me?” 

McTavish shrugged. “I do still want to try to get better at the whole soldiering thing. And you seem like you’re good enough.” 

Carolina nodded, standing up and taking a few steps away from the Warthog. She stretched herself out as she walked since she wanted to be comfortable when she started training. “I can’t help but wonder whether or not you should have gone to Coyote or Darnoldson about this.” 

McTavish stood up and approached Carolina, relaxed in the oddest way. “Coyote doesn’t have the time for me, and Darnoldson…” His voice trailed off for a moment. “He's not the most combat proficient.” 

“I got the impression that he’s not really a soldier.”

“He’s medical or something.” McTavish said as he began to stretch in a sort of mirror to Carolina. “He doesn’t need to have to fight like the rest of us because of it. I don’t know the whole story, but he was transplanted to Echo from Beta, and that’s where all the science squads are or something.”

Carolina blinked. “That makes sense, I guess.” 

McTavish cocked his head, staring at her. “Can I try and spar with you?”

God, she was going to have to do so much to make herself look like she was on par with the rest of the soldiers at Outpost Echo. If she ended up looking too competent then all she’d do was send off red flags for McTavish to see, and then presumably gossip about. 

“You’re sure you want to do this?” Carolina asked McTavish one last time. Best she give him an out.

“I’m sure.” McTavish replied. “Make me good at things. I’m begging you.”

Easier said than done.

Carolina sighed and sank down into a fighting stance in the middle of the dunes, careful to relax into it. There was no reason to drive herself mad over the whole thing. All she had to do was get a good workout in and  _ hopefully _ she’d be able to unwind a bit in the process. 

“We can start on three.” 

McTavish nodded along, bouncing on his toes a little bit like he was actually excited for a fight. 

“Three sounds good.” 

Carolina smirked, and with that the countdown began on synchronized clocks. 

When the little timer hit zero for both of them, Carolina decided to hang back and let McTavish start the two of them off. If she could figure out where he needed the most work, Carolina could tailor the spar just for him so that they could work on something he really needed to work on. 

That she could deal with. 

McTavish’s opening move was far from impressive. A basic punch, directed straight at her head. Carolina simply leaned back to put a bit of space between the two of them, and knocked McTavish’s arm away from her in one fluid motion. 

McTavish seemed to realize surprisingly quickly that he was a little further in over his head than he'd originally thought. Carolina grinned at him behind her helmet as she caught hold of the edges of his armor and brought him to the ground quickly. 

"That's one." She said, smirking down at him and standing up straight with her hands on her hips. "I feel like you could be doing a whole lot better than this." 

McTavish just stared up at her, at least a little bit surprised by how efficiently he'd been taken down. "What the fuck." 

"Martial arts training is useful." Carolina said, offering the other soldier a hand so that she could haul him up to his feet. He took her hand and went with her in one easy motion. Carolina gave him a chance to walk it off, and even think about what had just went so wrong for him. 

McTavish looked over at her, but there was something in his stance that she could only see as being heavily guarded. Most likely, he'd just figured out that she wasn't going to be taking it too easy on him. "Okay." He said, almost hesitant. "That was... quick." 

"Yeah." Carolina shrugged. "If I was you I'd try to figure out how to guard myself better. If you want a tip, it helps to turn your body to the side. You create a smaller target that way.“ 

McTavish sank down into a fighting stance across from her though, taking her advice and mimicking her own stance. "You know, it's probably a good thing that Locus and Felix don't know how good you are." He said, sounding a little bit out of breath. Carolina sank down into a fighting stance all the same thought. "I mean, if they knew--"

"If they knew what?" Carolina asked, cocking her head to the side in a dare of sorts. If McTavish wanted to talk like this, he had the chance, but she didn't intend to give him all too many chances to get deep into how weird it was. "I'm just a bounty hunter." 

"Bullshit you are." McTavish said. "Three again?"

"On three." Carolina confirmed, smirking and waiting as the countdown began on their synchronized helmets once more. Once three hit, she watched as McTavish decided to take a more defensive strategy, falling back almost immediately into a guard so that she had to come to him. 

Maybe he was learning, Carolina thought. Unfortunately, she found it about a thousand times more likely that McTavish was simply over-correcting when he really shouldn't have been. But she decided to play along anyways, and she threw herself into his space and made him defend against her. 

He managed all of two blocks before an easy opening appeared and Carolina was able to simply take him down by sweeping out his legs. 

He fell and Carolina smiled down at him as she set her foot on his chest piece. "Two."

"Okay." McTavish huffed. "Fuck." 

"So." Carolina said, giving him the space to get up again. "What was that you were saying about the mercenaries?"

"If they knew you were this good, you wouldn't be on our squad." McTavish said, a little hesitantly. "And then we'd probably see our mission success rate fall through the floor again like it did when Ehlers died." 

Carolina hummed quietly. "Well, I don't know that I want to be involved with what Locus and Felix are so directly." 

McTavish cocked his head, staring at her. "Are you kidding? Those guys get paid a fuckton." 

"And I prefer my separation from it." Carolina countered easily. "I'm sure you can understand." 

McTavish did seem to pause to consider it though. He let out a little breath in consideration over what Carolina said, probably thinking about whether or not he'd want to take on the same duties himself. "I guess I could get that." He mumbled. "I'm just not sure... I figured that they paycheck would be worth it." 

Carolina nodded along. "I'm just not sure that I'd want to." 

"Yeah." He sighed. "So one more time where you get me on my back and this is done, right?"

And a little laugh escaped Carolina over that, since she was at least a little bit surprised that McTavish was even considering going for a third round. If she was nicer, she probably would have even given McTavish a chance to actually get a good hit on her. But she could also choose not to allow it and make him really work for it. 

"Yeah, I mean." Carolina chuckled. "We agreed to go to three, so that is how that would work." 

McTavish nodded along, but he seemed unsure of himself at the worst. 

When it was time to start, Carolina could only smirk before she was darting into McTavish's space and making sure that he needed to do something to try and protect himself against her. When he wasn't able to do it and she easily flipped him flat onto his back, Carolina stood up, leaned over him, and stared down at him. 

"Nice try." She said, grinning behind her helmet. "Better luck next time." 

McTavish stared back up at her. "Yeah." He grumbled. "I guess." 

Carolina offered him a hand and pulled him up to his feet. 

It was about dark enough that the training projector could be used anyways. There wasn't any use in neglecting it. 


	13. Beta

The days of not being able to do anything that could be called even remotely productive quickly grew into weeks. 

For three weeks straight, Carolina and Epsilon had been stuck with their metaphorical dicks in their hands. Whatever the Mercs were up to with the two armies was apparently getting quickly out of hand, if the reports that they had picked up were in any way accurate. 

"Hey!" Darnoldson banged on the door to her and Coyote's room. He won an immediate groan out of Coyote, who laid in her bunk with her helmet on, probably watching some sort of show on her HUD instead of dealing with the outside world.

Carolina sighed, pulled herself to her feet, and went to meet her team leader at the door. 

"What?" She asked, opening the door just a crack. Just enough to see Darnoldson.

Darnoldson was already in full armor, and seemed a little bit panicked. 

"Orders came in." He said, sounding a little out of breath. It wasn't entirely unlikely that he'd just had to sprint across the entirety of Outpost Echo to deliver whatever news he had. Darnoldson leaned to the side a little bit to peek in and get a glance of Coyote. 

Back in her bunk, Coyote sat up, removing her helmet. "What?" She snapped, alarmed.

Darnoldson sighed. "We've got orders. Need to be in the Warthog now." 

"And by now you mean ten minutes ago, right?" Coyote asked, already rolling out of her bunk and making her way over toward her locker. 

"Yeah." Darnoldson grumbled. "Except the orders were from Locus, so we actually needed to be in the Warthog about an hour ago.“"What happened?"

"We'll talk on the way." Darnoldson said. "Be ready for a long trip. We don't know when the hell we'll be coming back." 

And that was very bad. Beyond bad. Worse than bad. 

Something was fucking  _ wrong _ , and Carolina didn't know what it could have possibly been. 

"We'll be ready in a minute." Carolina said, pushing the door closed all at once and rushing over to her locker so that she too could prepare for a fight, or a mission, or whatever it was that was happening. 

Either way, it sounded bad.

* * *

They got out and found that Darnoldson had already pulled a Warthog for them, and had warmed it up by letting it idle. It was even parked near the exit of the outpost, waiting for anyone to get in and take it. Even then, it looked like others at the Outpost were also preparing for missions of their own. 

Something had gone completely fucking wrong, and Carolina had no idea  _ what _ . Nobody had been really forthcoming as far as answers went. 

She climbed into the back of the Warthog though, and McTavish slipped into the spot across from her. Coyote naturally slid herself into a driver's seat, and Darnoldson put himself at shotgun.

They sat there for just a moment before Darnoldson spoke up. 

"Alright, so we're going to be on--" He hesitated a moment. "Uh, 37-Foxtrot. It's a secure line." 

Carolina was able to relax as Epsilon took the reins and switched the two of them over to the proper channel so that they could get into the loop. The radio crackled quietly and Carolina realized that she was the first one in aside from Darnoldson himself. Perhaps that should have been surprising, but Carolina was all too aware that she’d flicked over with Epsilon perhaps a little too quickly. 

Little beeping sounds indicated every other member of the squad joining until all of them were there and able to speak. 

“Okay, where the hell are we going?” Coyote asked first, no nonsense and ready to get the show on the road. Of course, the fact that they’d been introduced to the mission with a statement about how they’d needed to be on the road an hour ago probably had a lot to do with it. 

On her HUD, Carolina watched Epsilon bring up the map of Chorus that they'd been working on ever since they’d gotten there. He highlighted their exact location, the Warthog a blinking light that sat on top of the red marker that was Outpost Echo. 

“They want us at Outpost Beta.” Darnoldson said, sounding a little out of breath. “Guess shit’s getting weird with the science crews. That’s all I’ve got.” 

There was a long pause, and Carolina heard Coyote swear quietly into her mic, just loud enough that it was barely picked up. Up ahead of her, she watched Coyote put the Warthog into gear and then the drive to Outpost Beta began. 

The first one to speak up was McTavish. 

“They want us at Outpost Beta because of you, right?” He asked, tapping Darnoldson on the shoulder. “Since you’re—”

“Yeah.” Darnoldson confirmed. “Pretty much. Apparently they found something and want an additional squad on site. Not to mention an extra officer.” 

“Any idea if we get a place to live?” Coyote asked. “Because I swear to god, if I’m stuck sleeping in the back with the three of you we'll have problems.” 

Darnoldson sighed. “I don’t know. We’re supposed to be meeting Locus there.” 

“And we already know that explains the urgency.” Carolina mumbled. On her HUD, Epsilon highlighted what was apparently Outpost Beta. “Anything else we need to know?”

“Considering that they’ve put us on a need to know basis, no.” Darnoldson answered her, settling back into his seat. “Locus will contact us when we’re needed.” 

And yeah, that wasn’t exactly comforting. Especially when Carolina was sure that at least part of the reason for the need to know status came from Locus’ own distrust towards her. Not that she could really blame him for the distrust. He seemed to have a gut feeling and was sticking to it. 

As annoying as it was, Carolina had to respect it. 

Coyote sighed. “It’s going to be a few hours.” She said. “Might as well get some sleep. If anything happens, you’ll be woken up anyways.” 

“You sure?” McTavish asked. “Because you’re running on as much sleep as the rest of us are.” 

“I’ll sleep when we’re there.” Coyote answered. “Get some sleep.” 

Carolina and McTavish both looked to Darnoldson, who let out a sigh. “Listen to Coyote. You two will make it up for us later.” 

“Got it.” McTavish grumbled and Carolina watched as he adjusted himself in his seat, curling in on himself so that he could potentially get some rest.

_ Might as well try it. _ Epsilon told her, his voice filtering in over their own channel.  _ I’ll wake you up, sis. _

Carolina smiled behind her helmet and did the same as McTavish. 

Eventually she managed to fall asleep despite the bumps in the road. 

* * *

A beeping sound on her radio woke Carolina up with a jerk. She sat up and found that Epsilon had placed an ETA timer on her HUD. They were still a good hour away from Outpost Beta, and whatever it was that they were going to end up finding out there. Carolina pushed herself upright, since she was pretty sure that she'd been woken up by the private channel anyways. 

Either way, she needed to be awake and more importantly,  _ alert. _

“You up?” Coyote asked, her voice making it all too clear that she was on edge at the moment. “Because we’ve got news.” 

“Yeah, I’m up.” Carolina said, swallowing and hoping that it would erase just how tired she felt. 

“Good.” Darnoldson spoke up. “McTavish?”

“Yeah, yeah.” The final member of their squad spoke up. He sounded groggy. “What’s happening?”

“Allowing Locus into the channel.” Darnoldson and Carolina heard the quiet beep that signaled that Locus had just joined them. Dread began to creep its way down Carolina’s spine, since she wasn’t sure what the hell he wanted them for. So many details were still lost from them, so much context was still missing. 

But the mercenary spoke, and when he spoke everyone else on the channel went silent for their own good. 

“Pull into the base from the west entrance.” He instructed Coyote specifically. “There will be an officer there waiting for you. From there you’ll be briefed and brought onto site.” 

“Understood.” Coyote spoke up, calm as ever. “Are there barracks for us?”

“There will be.” Locus confirmed. “Don’t waste any time.” 

“Got it.” Coyote said, and they all waited, like all of them were fully expecting for Locus to say something else that would offer some clues as to what was going on. They got none. Instead, Locus only logged off of the channel with a click. 

Only once he was gone did Carolina feel like she was able to breathe. 

“Well that was really fucking informative.” McTavish muttered in annoyance. “Real good use of our fucking time.” 

“Yeah.” Coyote sighed. “At least we have instructions now. That’s sure as hell a lot better than the whole shitload of  _ nothing  _ we had before.” She sat quietly for a moment, and then spoke up. “We’ve never been told to come in from the west of Outpost Beta though.” She said, like it could have meant something. “Possible there’s a supply drop there.”

“Or they want us to avoid being seen.” Carolina suggested. “Maybe they’re worried about being found.” 

“Possible.” Darnoldson said. “I used to be at Beta mostly. Echo’s a complete mess by comparison. Beta might have the tightest ship on the entire fucking planet.” The way that Darnoldson said it almost made him sound like he was uncomfortable with the prospect of arriving back at Outpost Beta. 

It had never occurred to Carolina that it was possible that the space pirates got moved to different Outposts for a reason. Perhaps there was a reason that Darnoldson was at Outpost Echo.

Coyote though, seemed far less concerned. “Whatever happens is what happens. I just want to make sure that we don’t end up in a world of shit because Locus keeps high standards and we're used to fucking around with nothing to do.” She shifted uncomfortable in her seat. “So I guess that all of us are going to have to be on our best behavior if this shit’s going to go well.” She just drove them off toward the direction of the West Entrance. 

The next person to speak up was McTavish. “And we still don’t know  _ fuck all _ about why we’re here. That’s real great.” 

“Get over it.” Carolina muttered. “If we're being kept on a need to know basis, there's probably a good reason for it.” 

_ Yeah, either that or Locus is paranoid. _ Epsilon whispered in her head.  _ Since you know. That looks like that’s what it is. _

“It’s possible.” Darnoldson said, frowning. “Guess we don’t have any option but to show up and find out what’s going on.” 

“Yeah.” Coyote mumbled. “Should probably go radio silent until we’re there though. It’s probably better for all of us if we don’t show up already stomping on basic protocol.” 

“Good thinking.” Carolina said, muting her own mic for the time being. When they arrived, then she’d find out more about what was happening. Until then, she could stand being quiet just the same as her teammates could. 

The drive continued for another hour before Outpost Beta began to peek into view. It was  _ much  _ larger than Outpost Echo was, with more equipment and personnel available to man the location. It almost seemed like Outpost Beta got ninety percent of the space pirate’s operating budget. Either that or the people in charge there were  _ very _ thrifty with what was allowed to them. 

The West Entrance was closed off with a steel chain link fence that was likely hastily erected when the outpost was originally established. On the other side was a single soldier, who stood tall in their armor that looked like it had once belonged to a member of the Federal Army of Chorus before it had been claimed and repainted to the space pirate uniform steel. 

They strode to the front gate, while Epsilon tried to get access to whatever metrics on their armor that he could. Within seconds, he had placed a window on Carolina’s HUD identifying the soldier as a Sergeant Rambeau. 

“Stop!” Rambeau called to them. “You the ones from Echo?”

“Yeah, we are.” Coyote called back, having already set the Warthog to neutral. “Locus ordered us in through here.” 

Rambeau eyed them suspiciously and took a few steps away from the gate, raising a hand to the side of their helmet as they made a call which was presumably meant to be a confirmation of Coyote’s claim. They talked for a moment and Carolina couldn’t help but think how  _ easy _ it would be to simply run the Warthog straight through the cheap fencing and into Outpost Beta. 

Maybe she could use that information later on down the line. It wasn’t a sure thing, but she could make a guess as to how well it would all end up going. 

But Rambeau returned to the gate and unlocked the padlock that held it shut, unwinding the chain that it had secured in place. “Alright.” They called to Coyote. “Pull in and park outside the vehicle bay. After that, go and meet Locus in the armory. He sounds pissed.” 

“As pissed as he can sound?” Coyote asked. 

“Yeah, that.” Rambeau responded, stepping out of the way so that they could drive on through. Coyote was careful to follow the instructions that she’d been given to the T. She parked them at the vehicle bay as instructed.

For a moment, all of them paused to consider whether or not they should report straight to Locus or consider unpacking their things first. 

“We’ll get them after.” Darnoldson made the order, having only gone through his own things quick enough to arm himself. “Odds are nothing’s going to end up being looted.” He paused, seeming less than confident. “Hopefully.”

_ Good thing everything compromising is in your armor already, huh? _ Epsilon teased Carolina as she shouldered her rifle and attached a pistol to the magstrip on her thigh.  _ I don’t know about you, but I sure as fuck don’t want to know what happens if someone else finds out about all of those Freelancer equipment upgrades. _

And yeah, Carolina felt the same way about it. McTavish knowing was already bad enough. Outpost Beta pirates knowing would be sure to sink her entire operation in one fell swoop.

Once they were all prepared, they made the trip over to the armory, which was clearly marked as such from the outside, something which the Outpost Echo didn’t exactly share. Darnoldson signaled for all of them to wait outside for just a moment before he went to the door and began to punch in the same access code that he used at Outpost Echo. 

The door didn’t open. 

He let out a low sigh, muttered something under his breath, and then knocked firmly on the door. 

“This is Jordan Reynolds and Beta Squad reporting from Outpost Echo.” He called through the door. “My access code isn’t working.” 

He stepped away from the door like he’d just heard something moving around inside. Moments later there was a quiet beep and Carolina saw the door begin to open almost on its own. She didn’t see any sort of shimmer to signal that there was someone using active camo there, however. 

So an automatic mechanism then. 

_ We can use that. _ Epsilon said, subtly trying his best to peel away from Carolina’s implants so that he could make his way into the door’s mechanisms. It was certainly something that they could use again in the future. Carolina just didn’t really know when that would end up being. 

Darnoldson seemed to try and shake all of the tension out of his body before he went forward and stepped inside, waving the rest of them in after. Coyote followed after him. Carolina waited for McTavish to go in but he gave her a weird look and snapped and pointed at the door. 

She nodded and made her way into the armory. Once McTavish was inside after her, the door swung closed. 

Outpost Beta’s armory was night and day compared to the one that they’d had back at Outpost Echo. The most obvious difference, Carolina noted, was that it was actually  _ organized _ , and not in the labeled shelves of overflowing boxes way that Outpost Echo’s armory was. 

There were gun racks on the walls, with the weapons in them cleanly maintained and looking as though they hadn’t just been looted off of a body at any point. Parts and supplies were pushed into drawers, all of which were cleanly shut and clearly labeled. There was no clutter on the tables in the room. 

It almost seemed like they might have had someone whose entire job was to maintain the armory.

Either way, Darnoldson’s  _ ‘tightest ship on Chorus’  _ claim appeared to be completely legitimate. So far Carolina hadn’t seen anything to disprove it. 

And sure enough, Locus was there, standing at a table with a pair of space pirates next to him. On the table between the three of them was a weapon of some sort that Carolina could vaguely remember seeing once before, even though she couldn’t quite put her finger on where it was. 

Locus didn’t even look up to acknowledge the rest of them, so Darnoldson let out an annoyed little noise and ordered for them all to fall into a line so that they were out of the way for the time being. 

The conversation between Locus and the two pirates continued before Locus stood up tall and said the first thing that Carolina could make out for sure. “Prepare it for shipment.” He ordered. “Control will be able to do more with their resources.” 

The two space pirates,  _ science division, _ Carolina realized belatedly began to hurry themselves with packing the weapon into a case. 

Finally, Locus turned his attention onto the rest of them. 

“You’ve arrived.”

“We arrived ten minutes ago, sir.” Darnoldson spoke up for the rest of them. “And we apologize for our tardiness.” 

Locus grunted. “There are concerns that some of the Reds and Blues have escaped their captivity.” He began to instruct. “Intelligence suggests that their hope is to stage a rescue of Agent Washington and the Reds that are being held by members of the Federal Army.” 

Carolina felt her heart begin to beat too hard and too fast in her chest. 

_ No _ . 

He looked between the four of them. “Reynolds, you are to remain here and aid in the investigation of a temple. The rest of you are to go on a patrol with me.”

Darnoldson seemed to flounder for words. Coyote however, didn’t. She never did. “We’re going after the Reds and Blues?”

“We are to prepare an interception.” Locus instructed them. “Felix is following them, but we must be prepared for the worst.” 

“How long ago did they leave?” McTavish asked. “Because—”

“Six hours ago.” Locus responded. “We’re able to rely on their lack of knowledge of the land to a certain degree. A squad has also been sent to Federal Army Outpost 17-B where the rest of the Reds and Blues are being held.” He seemed to pause for a moment, considering something. “You will be tasked with intercepting them.” 

McTavish frowned, seeming unsure of the plan, or like there were pieces of it that didn’t make all that much sense in the grand scheme of things. And it  _ didn’t  _ make all that much sense, Carolina thought. Why would Locus have them come in from Outpost Echo to do this task when he had squads more readily available at Outpost Beta?

There had to be some sort of reason for it. What, Carolina didn’t know. 

Maybe he was onto her after all. 

Locus looked between the four of them. 

“We leave in five.”

And that was all that there was to it. 


	14. An Important Relay

The sheer amount of time that was spent on the road wore on all of them quickly, but the adrenaline that shot through Carolina's veins at even the _thought_ of her friends being stuck at a location that was about to get destroyed was more than enough to keep her alert. In a way she felt like she was barely hanging on from the edge of a panic attack. Her heart was beating too hard against her chest, and so Carolina was doing _everything_ in her power to just hold herself together.

In the end, Carolina didn't really know what the outcome that she'd been preparing herself for over the course of the day would be. Either way, it wasn't what she actually _got._

She hadn't been prepared for them to be making their approach on foot, completely cloaked and carrying heavier weaponry than they normally would have.

Trekking through the snow to get there was also a bit of a surprise, and Carolina was glad that Epsilon was more than capable of regulating the temperature of her armor and bodysuit for her. Otherwise, she would have been in for a much worse time than she was having already.

Locus led them, the only sign that he was moving at all being the imprints left by his footprints in the snow. If they'd had the time, Carolina would have imagined that he would have gone out of his way to see to it that they were covered over. But they didn't have the time, and frequent updates from Felix dictated much of the direction of their mission.

"_Keep your fucking distance."_ Felix hissed into their collective ears. _"The last thing that any of us need is these assholes getting a chance to get back together."_

"We are keeping our distance." Locus retorted. "Now would you maintain radio silence?" It wasn't a question.

"_Asshole."_ Felix quipped before going silent once more. Based on what they'd been hearing, Felix had been following after the Reds and Blues ever since they'd slipped out of the Fed base. Whatever he had told General Kimball to be able to trail them for as long as he had alone, Carolina didn't know. Whatever it was, it had to have been something fairly convincing for him to be able to still be at it.

Darnoldson seemed uneasy, at least the awkward shift of his shimmer once in a while said as much.

Carolina felt it too. She honestly hoped all of them did.

The only one on the mission that seemed even _remotely_ confident was Locus, and Carolina suspected that was simply because he was the lead on the mission. Or because he had some sort of plan in place that made it so that he wouldn't have to worry. He seemed like the type to have contingencies on top of contingencies.

And then there was just the basic reality that Locus knew more than the rest of them did. It was what made her position there such a massive pain in his ass.

Of course, if she could have just been a thorn in Locus' side that would have been a better deal for her. But that would have jeopardized her mission too quickly, and it seemed like getting the mercenary's trust was better than throwing it away.

Felix gave more when he was just allowed to talk than at any other time. It was something that had become quickly apparent.

They found the Reds and Blues among the snow, their brightly colored armor impossible to miss against the wintery landscape. Their little squad stood up at the top of a hill, looking down at the four soldiers as they talked and tried to figure out the best way into the base itself.

Tucker seemed to be in the lead, which Carolina couldn't help but find a little surprising.

_Nah, that makes sense._ Epsilon amended in her head. _Caboose can't lead shit, and Grif and Simmons won't do shit without someone else calling the shots._

And yeah, that certainly _seemed_ to line up with what Carolina knew about the Reds and Blues. Of course, Epsilon knew all of them a lot better than she did personally, but it sounded correct at the very least.

Locus signaled for their little squad to stop with a raised hand. He looked back at them and pointed them all off in a different direction, which Darnoldson took the lead on.

The temptation to just _run_ was too great.

But she didn't have much of a choice in the matter it seemed, and so Carolina followed along with the rest of her teammates. They kept a decent distance away from the Reds and Blues, which only made Carolina worry because she _knew_ how the sim troopers were.

If they were going to start something, it was guaranteed to happen in the first _second_ that nobody had an eye on them.

Which meant that Carolina could only assume that they were seconds away from a disaster, primarily one in which her cover got blown and _then_ she didn't even know what was going to happen. Maybe she'd find herself with a comfortable shallow grave among the snow, if she was even given the dignity of that much.

But if she left, she broke her cover, so she followed Darnoldson.

They tracked the Reds and Blues for all of five minutes before an update crackled onto their shared radio network.

"_Agent Washington, Sarge, and Private Donut have escaped."_ Locus' voice provided as an update, apparently having split off from their squad so that he could blend in among Outpost 17-B as himself rather than move through it under the cover of active camouflage. "_Standby."_

Just like that, all four of them stopped dead in their tracks, Darnoldson standing stiffly among the snow as the collective realization settled over all of them that the entire mission was likely fucked. Locus would recall them when he wanted them, but it was looking more and more like it wasn't going to be an option.

The odds that the mission was about to turn to a massacre instead of an interception also wore heavily on Carolina's mind.

Darnoldson let out a heavy sigh. "We continue tracking them." He ordered. "When we get orders, then we'll act on them, but until then—"

Felix's voice was the next one to interrupt the private channel.

"_Okay, new plan." _He started, his message more meant for Locus than for the rest of them if Carolina had to guess. "_Let them meet up. We'll give them an option to get out of here."_

Wait, what?

"_Elaborate."_ Locus ordered.

"_Give them a ship off the planet. Give them a chance to save their asses." _Felix explained. "_And explain that they only get it if they agree to never say a word of this, and if they're going to be a pain about it—"_

Carolina felt her stomach drop.

"_We keep the freelancer as collateral."_

Wash.

Felix was talking about keeping Wash as a prisoner.

On the one hand, Carolina didn't know if the Reds and Blues would go with it.

On the other, Wash _knew_ that she was infiltrating the Merc forces already.

Maybe they could actually use that to their advantage.

Locus seemed to consider the suggestion though, and Carolina found herself _praying_ that he took it because at least that way she could keep her friends safe. If he didn't, saving them without blowing her cover was officially off the table and Carolina _didn't want that._

"_Fine_." Locus finally grumbled. "_If it fails—"_

"_Yeah."_ Felix snapped. "_I know. But control wants them alive."_

"_Good." _Locus answered. "_Out."_

Before Carolina could even think of it, Epsilon had already began to compose a message for the Reds and Blues on Carolina's HUD. It was frantic and concerned, but it was better than absolutely nothing. All that it had to do was clearly communicate what was going on, and then hopefully the Reds and Blues would work with it.

At the very least, she hoped Wash could be the voice of reason and get them to listen.

Maybe then she could make sure that all of her friends made it off of Chorus alive.

The message that Epsilon had written only bothered to relay the information that the Reds and Blues would need to know on the most immediate basis. Carolina figured that he would go ahead and reach out to them again should the situation change. At the very least, she hoped that Epsilon would handle the manner in such a way.

Wash would be the voice of reason. She was sure of it. She had to be sure of it. If she didn't, then all her friends were as good as dead and she'd lost _another_ team on her watch.

Carolina swallowed, glad that her mic was muted so that nobody else could hear it.

Darnoldson let out a slow breath and turned to the rest of the squad, clearly not sure how he was meant to take charge anymore since the entire goal of their mission as originally laid out had just gotten ripped out from underneath them.

"Sounds like we keep a trail on them." He said, a little dejection creeping into his voice. "Hopefully we don't get any more changes in plans. That's about the last thing that any of us could really use right now—" he looked between the rest of the squad, and Carolina _prayed_ that the opportunity presented itself so that she could slip off.

If she could just see her friends up close before everything started happening, she'd feel a lot better. If she could know that they were all alive and well, or relatively unharmed, or that they wanted to fight but understood that going was better, Carolina would have felt better.

She wanted to know that Wash was holding together alright, despite having been kept in cells for what had to have been at least a month and a half at that point.

"Maybe we should just keep pace." Coyote spoke up, helpful as ever. "Until we get instructions that say we should otherwise. Let the mercs figure it out and then follow suit after."

"Coyote's right." McTavish spoke up. "Await further instructions, that's what Locus said. So we should do that."

Darnoldson looked at Carolina, clearly in search of a consensus before they chose to carry on.

"I agree." Carolina said, in the same moment that the little _sent_ icon appeared on her HUD, Epsilon's composed message having been replaced entirely before closing out altogether. All she had to do was buy the Reds and Blues was much time as she possibly could. "Await further instruction. Keep close like we have been, but don't do anything unless we're given specific orders to do so."

Darnoldson let out an annoyed sigh but gave in with a wave of his hand to signal that they should continue to follow the Reds and Blues.

As they got closer and closer to Outpost 17-B, Carolina couldn't help that she was looking for more and more chances for her to slip away from the space pirates so that she could get to the Reds and Blues, or Wash, or anyone. She could put herself in a position where she could intervene should they come to harm, just put herself in a place where she could do _anything._

So they followed, and they listened in on everything. On every single bit of inane bickering that Tucker, Grif, Simmons, and Caboose could come up with until the time came that they stopped dead in their tracks.

Epsilon sent off another frantic message from Carolina's helmet _begging_ for the fact that they'd been contacted at all to be kept a secret.

It seemed to hit Tucker just in time.

Tucker turned to face the rest of their tiny squad.

For the first time in months, Carolina heard her friend's voice.

"What happens if we can't find them?" He asked, dejected. "I mean, what if we get in there and they aren't even there?"

"You're… seriously thinking about that right now?" Grif spoke up, annoyed. "Don't you even _suggest_ that we're wasting our time right now."

"We aren't wasting our time!" Simmons spoke up, sounding a little bit panicked. "I mean, we weren't getting anything done back with the New Republic—" His voice trailed off, like he was realizing just how bad things were himself. Carolina hoped that he'd gotten the message. Simmons seemed like the type that would be able to follow along with what she and Epsilon were asking of them.

"We'll find Washington and Sargeant and Private Pavlova." Caboose said, oddly cheery about the whole thing. "And then we can all go home and have fun."

"Yeah, Caboose." Tucker sighed. "Right."

He turned back towards Outpost 17-B, and the path that they'd been taking the whole time. "We'll keep going, just… don't be surprised if we don't find them."

"Dude." Grif spoke up, sounding like he had his teeth grit behind his helmet. "_We're going to find them."_

Tucker didn't bother to protest. He just led the way onward.

"Do they only stand around and talk or something?" McTavish mumbled into their shared transmission, clearly tired and frustrated like the rest of them were.

That certainly seemed to be the most common question when it came to the Reds and Blues. To the point where Carolina couldn't help the frustrated sigh that escaped her at the question that had just been asked.

"It certainly seems to be that way." She remarked, pushing on and following along like a good little soldier.

* * *

The Reds and Blues reunited in the middle of Federal Army Outpost 17-B to a surprisingly small amount of fanfare. Their excitement was only allowed to last for moments though before their harebrained scheme to ensure that they could get in and out of the base unnoticed backfired. The countless Feds ran out of their bunkers, concerned for the few belongings that any of them had left to their names.

It was then that the order was passed down that they were to leave no survivors aside from the Reds and Blues. It came as Locus' voice crackling over the radio.

Carolina was thankful that the cloaking unit that she was _meant_ to use was finally working for the first time. Epsilon seemed to be needing to work double time to make sure that it stayed online, but being cloaked was _good_ for Carolina.

As long as she was cloaked, it was impossible to prove whether or not she'd fired at all.

Or more accurately, whether she'd bothered to take aim properly or not. In the chaos of the scene, there wasn't much of anyone keeping track of _anything_.

The Reds and Blues were backed into a corner.

Carolina stood just off to Locus' right, and took aim at the group of them as she was supposed to. The same way that everyone else did.

Locus uncloaked first, then the rest of them followed.

"Locus?" Wash shouted. "What are you doing?"

"Stand down." Locus ordered, his rifle aimed squarely at Wash's head. It made Carolina's heart beat too hard in her chest, because her friend was so close to turning up dead. The only thing that she had to assure her that he would survive was Felix's plan. Locus wouldn't break from Felix's plan, would he?

Carolina didn't actually feel like she knew.

"Fuck you dude!" Tucker shouted. "What the fuck is going on?"

"I said to stand down." Locus ordered once more, finger moving into position so that he could fire. "That was an order."

"I don't work for you!" Tucker shouted back, always too bold for his own good.

"_Now."_ Felix's voice ordered over the radio, clearly meant only for Locus' ears.

The green and black suited mercenary fired on Wash, and all at once a complicated ballet played out. Felix threw himself into position, clearly having been keeping as close to the rest of them as possible for the entire time.

Felix deployed his hardlight shield with expert timing, and Carolina watched as it ate Locus' bullet.

In a sight that made her sick to her stomach, Tucker seemed to let out a breath of relief over the fact that Felix was there. Like he thought that their savior had just arrived for them.

In a way, Tucker was correct. Provided that the Reds and Blues actually followed along with what Carolina had asked of them. If they did, then Felix was very much their savior.

"Might want to slow down, there." Felix said. "Tucker, you guys should think about running."

"What, fuck that!" Tucker shouted, taking aim at Locus. "He's evil as shit."

"Yeah, about that." Felix said, turning around to face the Reds and Blues in one easy motion. "So nice of you to keep in touch, Locs."

"Stop talking."

"Wait—" Grif seemed to pick up on it first. "What the hell are you doing?"

Felix looked back over his shoulder at Locus. "Checking in on an old friend."

"_Felix."_

"I'm getting to it." Felix said, glancing back over his shoulder at Locus. He turned slowly, deadly nonchalant too look back at the Reds and Blues. "The truth is that you little Reds and Blues are in way over your heads." Carolina could practically picture the cocky grin that he wore under his helmet. Like a cat playing with his food. "And some of us are _really_ sick of you getting in the way."

Tucker shot a panicked look at the rest of the Reds and Blues. "What do you mean?"

"Get to it." Locus grumbled to Felix, clearly needing for him to get to the punchline so that they could finish the mission.

"Always have to be pissy, don't you?" Felix all but _snarled_ back at Locus. "But fine, since he's getting impatient. You all walked into the middle of something much bigger than yourselves, or this little shitstain of a planet. You see we have an employer, one that's had his eye on this rock for a _long_ time. And everything was going great until you assholes came along."

_Big words from the biggest asshole in the universe,_ Epsilon commented, tucked away in Carolina's mind.

"Felix." Locus warned, himself growing impatient.

Felix gave Locus a _dirty_ look, but carried on. "The point is, you're stuck in the middle of this war and you don't _really_ want anything to do with it. And unfortunately our orders are that you've got to die to spur this whole thing on." Carolina could practically _hear_ the shit-eating grin that Felix wore behind his helmet. "And today's your lucky day because Locs and I are giving you a one time offer to not have that happen."

And just like that, an odd hush settled that was so thick that you couldn't have cut it with Maine's knifle.

"What do you mean?" Wash asked, his voice deadly serious. "One time offer?"

Locus took two steps forward, apparently sick of Felix running his mouth as per usual. "There is an airship scheduled to leave the planet later today." He began to explain. "All you'd have to do is board and keep your silence about what's happened here. We keep Agent Washington as collateral just to make sure that you hold up your end of the bargain. You live, he lives, we finish our mission."

"Pretty win/win deal to me." Felix commented. "And if you decide that you want to play along, nobody even has to know. Instead you could have been killed as heroes in Chorus' eyes. They won't have to know a thing, and besides, this isn't _your_ war, is it?"

Tucker seemed to still hold his resolve, even if Carolina could see him shaking where he stood. "And what about Chorus?"

"What about it?" Felix replied. "We're giving you guys a chance to live or die, and you care about some shitty planet you crash landed on? Are you kidding me? _Nobody_ is that selfless."

Locus took the helm again. "You make your choice here." He grumbled. "You have ten minutes."

"So what'll it be?" Felix asked, grinning down at the Reds and Blues from behind his helmet. "We've made our offer. You guys get out of here, you never say another thing, and we keep your freelancer buddy for collateral."

"Why should we do that?" Tucker growled up at Felix. "When you guys are up to something seriously fucked up?"

"Look." Felix said, and on cue Carolina and all of the other space pirates there took aim on the Reds and Blues, as they were supposed to. "What we're offering you is _very_ generous. Unless you'd prefer to be a smear on the pavement here, be my guest. But think on it. To me it's a pretty damn obvious choice."

"I'll do it." Wash spoke up, and Carolina felt a wave of relief over it. "Take one for the Team…s."

Tucker looked _betrayed_ by the suggestion of it. "What the fuck, Wash?"

"Look." Wash sighed. "He has a point. This isn't our fight. None of us even wanted to fight in the first place." He turned towards the mercs, his gaze scanning over all of the space pirates at their sides as he considered what he was meant to say next. He noticed Carolina, and then quickly looked back to the Reds and Blues. "Being collateral is a small price to pay to make sure the rest of you get out of here alive."

"And what if you don't get out alive?" Simmons asked, sounding mostly panicked. "What if—"

Felix scoffed. "Then that's war. It happens."

Wash let out a heavy sigh. "What he said." He mumbled. "Like I said. Take one for the teams."

"I hate this." Tucker growled. "You better fucking make it off of here, Wash."

Wash nodded. "I fully intend to." He said, just in the same moment that he turned to the two mercenaries. "You're telling the truth?"

"Sure are." Felix answered him. "Ship will be around in a little bit. Until then, we're all going to sit here and wait until your little buddies are on their ways off of Chorus."

"And me?" Wash growled, his stare going past Felix but to Locus instead. Like there was _something_ going on there, but Carolina didn't know what it could have been. Locus wasn't exactly an open book as far as what he got up to on Chorus went.

Locus said nothing. Just stared back at Washington, probably doing his best to come up with an answer in his head that he wasn't sure would actually make it out.

Felix made a weird little full-body eyeroll over it and spoke up.

"What happens to you, Washy." He spoke up, probably grinning a vulpine smile behind his helmet. "Is that you stay here with us. I promise, we don't usually hurt our prisoners of war. I mean, fuck—"

"_Felix._" Locus growled, and for the first time Carolina realized that he was trying to get Felix to _drop the topic._

"I'm getting to it, christ." Felix snapped back at Locus. "You stay with us. You choose to help us out a little bit, we might even be nice to you. You'll be itching for a shower and better rations after a few days, let me tell you."

Wash took a moment to consider, and Carolina _hoped_ that he wouldn't change his mind. He was her _partner_, dammit. She needed him there if they were going to take down the mercs and whatever was going on there on Chorus. If Wash could play nice with the mercs the same way that she was, it was even better.

All he had to do was agree to it.

"And if I say yes, I have your word that the Reds and Blues get off of Chorus alive?" Wash growled back at Felix, but still looked at Locus instead.

Locus tilted his head down to return Wash's gaze. "You have our word." He answered Wash. "None of the simulation troopers will be harmed."

"Fine." Wash growled back.

Felix nodded and turned away from the rest of them, holding his fingers to the side of his helmet like he was making a call to someone. In the meantime, Carolina and the other Space Pirates formed a perimeter around the Reds and Blues in the hopes of containing them. Just to make sure that they couldn't cause any trouble.

Locus' voice crackled in over their private channel. _"Disarm them." _He ordered. "_None of the Reds and Blues are to be harmed."_

Carolina swallowed hard and reminded herself to keep her mouth shut. She couldn't risk any of the Reds and Blues blowing her cover. Thankfully, Darnoldson spoke up, seeming to remember that he was the one in charge of their little squad.

"Drop your guns." He ordered, holding his own rifle up in Tucker's direction. "Don't make us take them by force."

"What—" Tucker growled. "No, fuck you!"

Carolina grit her teeth. She even felt Epsilon tug away from her, probably trying to get himself into Tucker's own implants so that he could communicate with him.

Thankfully, Simmons spoke up. "Tucker—" He said quietly. "We're kind of fucked here. If we don't listen, I'm pretty sure they'll just kill us."

"Affirmative." Coyote spoke up from the other side of the circle that had been formed. "Now are you going to drop the guns or not?"

Tucker hissed under his breath and began to go about disarming himself. He passed his gun off to Carolina, since she was the closest to him. She just took the rifle and pointedly _didn't_ go for Tucker's sword. He was going to need it, wherever he ended up. Even then, it was easy enough to play dumb like she didn't know what the hilt on his thigh was.

How was a normal space pirate meant to recognize a unique weapon, after all?

The rest of the Reds and Blues gave over their weapons more easily. After that, it was up to them to just keep them in one place until the transport ship arrived.

Nearly half an hour after Felix had called for it, the Pelican dropped down into the middle of Federal Army Outpost 17-B.

Felix seemed to leap to life as soon as it touched down. "And that's that." He said, gesturing towards the door. "See you assholes never."

"Fuck off, Felix." Tucker growled back at him as Carolina gently nudged him forward toward the Pelican. "Asshole." But he went, and soon the rest of the Reds and Blues followed after him. Caboose seemed to look at Carolina a little too long as he boarded, but he boarded with the rest of them.

Epsilon returned to her with a snap that nearly gave Carolina a headache. He didn't say anything to her.

What was there that he could say?

The Pelican took off, and the Mercs were true to their word. There was no tractor beam ripping it apart by pulling it back into Chorus' orbit. It just went, and left Chorus behind.

The Reds and Blues were safe. That was what mattered.

"Well, now that that bullshit's over with." Felix sighed, turning to the ranks of space pirates that had gathered there. "Loot the place. Make it look like the outpost is abandoned if you can."

Locus nodded. "Afterward, you're all to report to Outpost Beta." He gave the order, and just like that all of the space pirates were scurrying off to do exactly as Locus had ordered. But when Carolina turned to go, he spoke once more. "McCallister, stay."

Carolina stopped dead in her tracks, all too aware that Wash was there with them.

Felix tilted his head and gave Locus a weird look. "Think we need the help?"

"We're trying to contain a freelancer." Locus answered. "We need a third set of hands."

Felix seemed to coil, like a snake. "Well, we could have had—"

"Enough." Locus growled back, cutting Felix off. "McCallister, you're going to accompany myself, Agent Washington, and Felix back to Outpost Beta."

And for the first time, it occurred to her that doing so well during Locus' odd little practical exam could have been a _good _thing. She wasn't being chosen because he trusted her. She was being chosen because he considered her capable of doing the job that needed to be done.

"Understood, sir."

"Good." Locus muttered. Felix rolled his eyes and stalked off, seeming to understand what needed to be done.

Carolina stood at Wash's side, holding a gun pointed directly at him. He did nothing to try and escape, nothing to try and run. He didn't even look at her, probably because he understood just what was happening too. He wasn't the same kid that she'd met on the Mother of Invention. He was another creature altogether, just as devious as Locus and Felix were.

She didn't have anything to worry about when it came to him.

Minutes later, Felix returned with a Warthog.

"In." He ordered them. "McCallister, drive."

Carolina took Felix's place, while he slid into the passenger's seat. He twisted his body so that he could face Locus and Washington. With all of them loaded into the Warthog, Carolina began the drive back to Outpost Beta so that they could deal with whatever it was that was going to come next.

When they were ten minutes from Federal Army Outpost 17-B's ruins, Felix spoke up.

"So, Agent Washington." Felix said, relaxing against his seat, pointing a magnum lazily in Wash's direction. "Are you planning to play nice, or do I have to put you in jail like you probably deserve?"

Carolina couldn't look back over her shoulder to see how Wash reacted. Based on the way that Felix _tensed_ at her side though, she could only imagine that it wasn't good. If she had to guess, there may have been one or more rude gestures involved.

Locus however, didn't tolerate Felix's nonchalance on the matter.

"Washington." He spoke, voice in the low growl that it always was. "Do you intend to cooperate?"

There was a long pause, and then Carolina heard Wash speak up. "Yeah." He said. "I do. Not that I'm happy about it."

"Feeling's mutual." Felix hissed. "So this is going to be so fucking fun."

Washington snorted, and Carolina could practically see him rolling his eyes, even though he was behind her, even though she couldn't see him, even though he was wearing a visor.

Locus spoke up. "We'll contact Control from Outpost Beta." He said, voice somehow comforting despite the fact that Carolina was _pretty_ sure that there was about to be a knife fight in the Warthog. "From there we adjust our strategy."

Carolina felt her heart begin to beat too hard in her chest. She had the chance to be _in the room_ during a call to Control. If that was possible and Epsilon was able to get into the network and trace it, then it was entirely likely that the whole matter could be blown open.

Even if she _wasn't_ in the room, Wash would be.

She could _use_ that.

The only problem was that she'd need to get a chance to get Wash alone so that the two of them could talk about it. Surely she could do that.

Felix groaned. "Calling Control?" He snarled at Locus. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"It's for the sake of the mission."

"Yeah!" Felix nearly started shouting. "And control is a complete fucking prick. This is going to a fucking disaster."

"Felix—"

"You're handling the call." Felix snarled at Locus. "And I'm not going to fucking help you."

Wash spoke up then. "So this is that big of a deal?" He asked. "Getting the Reds and Blues out of your hair changes your plans that much?"

"Potentially." Locus answered. "But as of right now, there is a need-to-know basis."

Felix snorted. "Fucking bullshit." He muttered. "All of this is such fucking _bullshit._"

"Save it." Locus growled. "We'll talk to control soon."

Carolina let out a quiet sigh, kept her eyes on the road, and continued driving on.

Whatever happened next was what happened.


	15. Proximity Alarm

Carolina sat on her newly-assigned bunk at Outpost Beta, having been cast out just before Locus, Felix, along with a less than willing Washington made went ahead and made a call to Control. Epsilon had torn himself away from her to hide out in Wash’s on-board storage unit in his armor. Hopefully that meant that the two of them would be hard at work decoding whatever happened. 

It sucked.

Every time Carolina had a chance to get closer to the action, she found herself getting stopped from being involved directly. It put a damper on her mood which she wasn’t able to shake as easily as she would have liked.

The rest of her squad was off eating. She was taking the little bit of time that she could get alone for herself, if only because she didn’t know how long it would be before she got that sort of privacy again. 

Hopefully she’d get to talk to Wash. She didn’t know how they’d play off the meeting and make it look like they didn’t know each other at all, but it would have to happen. Hopefully in the process she and Wash could even manage to get some sort of confirmation that the Reds and Blues had landed somewhere far from Chorus and were safe and sound. 

Or maybe she’d end up getting dragged back to talk to Locus and Felix, and she’d find out then that she’d been found out. 

And then they’d kill her, and then probably Wash too if they hadn’t bothered to kill him first. 

Or maybe they’d be turned over to Control, who definitely wanted the both of them dead one way or another.

Carolina let out a frustrated sigh and leaned forward on her bed, bracing herself with her knees so that she could be at least a little bit more comfortable than she was. She was just so_ tired _, and there was no end in sight for her mission. 

The door to the bunk opened, and Carolina was surprised to look up and see Felix of all people standing there. At some point he’d ditched his armor, and had probably even taken a shower if the wetness of his hair was any indicator. He smelled like cheap cologne, probably the only kind he could get on Chorus.

“Hey.” He greeted her, letting the door swing shut behind him as he walked deeper into the room. He dropped down onto the bad next to Carolina and stretched out, like it was his own bed. “Hell of a day, huh?”

Carolina eyed Felix. What sort of game was he playing?

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Shouldn’t you be getting back to the New Republic?”

“Hm?” He asked. “Tonight probably. I’ve gotta come up with a good sob story for why Kimball and the News aren’t going to be seeing the Reds and Blues around anymore. As much as I love improvising, that shit takes _ time _. Can’t come up with a good script in a few minutes, and I want to be winning a fucking Oscar for the performance I put on when I tell them.” 

“And… Locus?”

“Same deal.” Felix said. “We’re gonna have a little meeting later to talk about it. Once he’s done interrogating Agent Washington.” 

That explained something, at least. 

“Interrogating?”

“Yeah.” Felix stretched out. “Not torture, if that’s what you’re thinking. That’s not really Locus’ deal, and besides—” He grinned up at Carolina. “It'd be counterproductive.” 

“Right.” 

Felix eyed her. “What's your problem?” He prodded, like he was there on some sort of invitation instead of having simply just let himself in so that he could make himself comfortable in Carolina’s bed. He was acting like they had a different level of rapport than they actually did, and Carolina _ really _ wasn’t sure what she was supposed to make of it. “Didn’t like the mission?”

“Just tired.” Carolina admitted. 

Felix rolled his eyes and pat the mattress pad next to him. “So fucking rest.” 

Carolina eyed him. “It’d be a tight fit.”

“_It’d be a tight fit.” _ Felix replied mockingly. “Christ, we’re the same size. Just fucking lay down with me.” 

What the fuck was even happening anymore?

Carolina squinted at Felix. He just rolled his eyes and pat the mattress beside him again, like that would be enough to communicate that Carolina didn’t _ really _ have an option there. She let out a sigh, and despite her better judgment, Carolina allowed herself to lie down at Felix’s side. 

“See?” He asked, grinning wide. “Not so bad, huh?” 

“I dunno.” Carolina replied, doing the best to put on the most deadpan voice that she could. Felix was probably well used to deadpans and emotional flatness from dealing with Locus, so it certainly wouldn’t have been too far out of his realm of understanding. “What is it?’

“Felt like relaxing.” Felix sighed. “And you’re doing the same.” 

It was true. Carolina couldn’t deny it. The only problem was that having Felix so close made her skin crawl, and she wasn’t entirely sure as to what the reasons for why were. She was probably just mixed up from how the mission had gone earlier, Carolina thought. That had to be it. That made _ sense _ at the very least. 

She turned her head to look at Felix more directly. 

He stared up at the ceiling with a bored expression. 

“I just don’t get why you chose to come here.” She sighed. “I mean, you must have more people here.” 

“Nope.” He muttered. “Just Locs, really. And he’s not in the mood… basically ever.” 

“Right.” 

Felix let his eyes drift back towards Carolina. “You’re not going to be like him, right? Because getting kicked out of bed fucking sucks.” 

Carolina raised an eyebrow. “No.” She said, schooling her expression back to something a little more passive. “I wasn’t planning to.” 

And for some reason that Carolina didn’t quite understand, Felix laughed. He turned and pressed himself in closer to Carolina, craving the direct contact that she could offer. They were skin to skin, and god Carolina couldn’t even _ remember _ the last time she’d been that way with someone. Maybe it had been York, back in another life, back when she was another person.

He was _ warm. _ There was the scent of soap, under the cologne. Like he’d done everything in his power to purge himself of the scents of the war and of Chorus from his skin. 

Carolina glanced over at Felix, at his face. The perfectly straight nose, the thin face, the sharp cheekbones. 

He wasn’t _ bad _ looking by any means. Not the old-school movie star handsome that York had been. 

Different, but not bad. 

In the back of her mind, Carolina wondered what Locus really looked like when he wasn’t wearing his helmet. 

Felix grinned at her, teeth showing. “Thinking about something?” He taunted her. “Something specific, maybe?” 

He was so close to her. 

“I dunno.” Carolina said, swallowing down her nerves all at once. “Are you?”

He cocked his head to the side, his eyes narrowing slightly like he was doing his best to focus in on her. “I dunno, I could be.” He said, voice honey smooth. “There’s the thing where the alternative for me is to be off doing mission shit with Locus.” He pressed himself in even closer to Carolina, and she realized for the first time that he was pushing himself up so that he laid on his stomach, or so that he could lean over her directly. “Or where I could be off interrogating the new Freelancer.” 

“That doesn’t sound fun.”

He smiled. “Exactly.” Felix whispered to him. “And that's why I’m here, with the finest soldier me or Locus managed to find. Because you aren’t bad looking. And you haven’t thrown me out yet so I’m going to sure as fuck take that and use it.” 

Carolina locked eyes with his. “What are you looking for here?” 

He stared back at her. “You tell me.” And with that his eyes slipped shut and he leaned in towards her, a strong hand sliding up her neck to catch her jaw and hold her in place. Felix didn’t give her any breathing room, he just leaned in and pressed his lips against Carolina’s own in what felt more like an act of ownership than anything else. It sure as hell wasn’t romantic. 

His thin fingers made their way up into her hair, knitting themselves into the short locks at the back of her neck. Carolina’s own right hand crept up towards Felix’s own neck, not to cup his jaw but to curl around his shoulder so that she could press him back in the need arose. 

Felix was the first of them to break the kiss, but when he stared back at her Carolina couldn’t ignore the _ hunger _ in his expression. In the oddest way, Carolina felt like she was about to be eaten alive, about to be torn apart at the seams because that was how Felix seemed to _ like _ his prey. 

The sound of a call coming in on Felix’s datapad interrupted them both. 

Carolina couldn’t feel Epsilon still, so it couldn’t have been him. 

Felix pulled himself away from Carolina, who still laid on the bed below him. His hand crept down towards her and onto her thigh as he checked the message that he’d just received. 

All at once, Carolina felt the grip on her leg tighten as cool anger stretched across Felix’s expression. He grit his teeth and tapped out a fast reply before another message came back to him, just as quickly. 

“Fucking asshole.” He hissed as he just draw himself out of the bed entirely. Carolina was left behind, so she pushed herself upright and watched as Felix went about the process of smoothing his hair back into place so that it could be less obvious as to what he’d been up to. 

“Something wrong?”

“Locus being needy.” Felix replied. “Which is what _ always _ happens. I swear to god, he’s got some sort of mental _ alarm _ or some fucking shit for when I’m about to get laid. It’s fucking obnoxious.” 

And yeah, _ nothing _ had been said about that topic, but Carolina said nothing. 

“Anything I can help with?”

“Nah.” Felix muttered, heading to the door so that he could leave her behind in the barrack. “I’ll find you later, if that sounds good. Maybe we can pick up where we left off.” 

She needed to find a chance to talk to Wash still. 

Against her better judgment, Carolina replied. “I think I’d like that.” 

Felix _ winked _ at her as he left her alone, at least for a little while. 

Carolina fixed her own hair and looked back down at the bunk. 

What the fuck was she even doing? 

* * *

Carolina waited until the middle of the night before she could even _ consider _ making a move. The rest of her squad had all settled into the private bunker that had been assigned to them, but it wasn’t a comfortable arrangement by any means. McTavish had been the only one to go straight to sleep. Darnoldson had apparently wanted to reconnect with some members of the science unit, and Coyote, as usual, wanted next to nothing to do with the rest of them. 

As for Carolina, she’d waited for all of the rest of them to get their sleep before she opted to get up and try to find Wash. 

Epsilon hadn’t come back to her yet, which left Carolina to assume that he was hitching a ride in Wash’s armor for the time being. If she had to guess, the AI could have even been trying to _ force _ her to find Wash sooner than later. 

It was also possible that Epsilon just wasn’t happy about their plan going right, given what it had meant. Carolina wouldn’t have _ blamed _ him if that were the case. 

She had to be careful though. She couldn’t risk Locus or Felix figuring out that she and Wash knew each other from Project Freelancer. Locus taking her back with them earlier was potentially the biggest olive branch that Carolina could _ ever _ rely on. The absolute last thing that Carolina could allow herself was to get comfortable with it. 

As for Felix…

She didn’t know. If she knew _ anything _ about what was going on there, she would have already made sense of it. 

But she didn’t know. She didn’t know _ anything _ and it was wearing on her. 

He hadn’t contacted her since he’d left. He was probably well on his way back to the New Republic, or maybe even already there.

But time ticked by around her, and Carolina was eventually able to leave her bunk and take in the air at Outpost Beta.

Aside from being kept in a better state of repair, Carolina could have sworn that there was absolutely nothing separating Outpost Beta from Outpost Echo. It was uncanny how she had managed to trade in one shithole for another shithole. 

Maybe that just described all of Chorus at that point. 

Carolina rubbed at the back of her neck, wishing that she had Epsilon back. At least if he was back with her she could make sense of things and there could be some sort of exchange of information. Instead he was with Wash, and Carolina _ hoped _ that was serving as a way to get Wash briefed on the situation from afar. 

Assuming that Wash wasn’t just being interrogated nonstop. Felix managing to find a few minutes to fuck around didn’t mean that Locus had left Wash alone. 

In the end, the only thing that Carolina could come up with to do was wander and get some form of mental map for the camp in her mind. 

“McCallister.” Locus’ voice distracted her just as she passed the mess hall, which had been locked up with a chain and heavy padlock, the kind that York could have broken through in his sleep. And probably actually had even managed to do so at some point. 

Carolina froze in place and turned slowly to look at the mercenary. 

He was in full armor as usual. No Felix there to convince him out of it.

“Is something wrong, sir?” She asked Locus, since she doubted that he would have gone ahead to seek her out without some sort of reason for it first. 

“We should talk.” Locus grumbled, taking the lead off towards the far end of the camp. 

Carolina blinked and watched him, unsure that she should even _ follow _ along after Locus for fear of what could be happening. Especially since Locus had never been particularly verbose by Carolina’s measure. The most that she’d ever gotten out of him directly had been during the drills to get her approved for their forces. 

And that hadn’t been anything other than him giving instructions that weren’t meant to be questioned. 

“Should we?” Carolina asked, deciding to match pace with Locus despite his longer strides. “Is something wrong?”

Locus shot her a look from behind his helmet as he slowed to a stop just outside of a small bunker. He removed a small key card from a compartment within his armor and tapped it to the electronic lock on the door, which opened with a soft chiming noise. 

When Locus opened the door, Carolina realized that she hadn’t been brought to some simple meeting area. 

The thing that stuck out to her more than anything else was that there were the standard two bunks against the walls, but the mattresses had been pulled off of them and placed side by side on the floor to create a poor approximation of a king sized bed. 

The colors of the sheets left no question as to who shared the bed, a mix of green and orange and grey. 

Personal quarters. Locus and Felix’s _ shared _ private quarters. 

So much for them hating each other so much. 

Carolina lingered by the door, but let it close behind her. She was mostly at a loss for why Locus would bring her to a place that was so… Carolina wasn’t sure if _ personal _ was the right word for it, but it felt like it was. There was a strange intimacy there, something that was more than dragging her out into the desert to see how she performed as a sharpshooter. 

Locus didn’t say anything to her just yet, only stood there and watched her as she waited for him to say something. Maybe now that she was in the room he didn’t know what he wanted to talk about anymore. Whether or not that would lead to a better or worse outcome for Carolina, she didn’t. 

“Sir?” She asked, once the quiet had stretched on a moment too long. “Why did you have me come here?” 

That seemed to get Locus’ mind back on track. He straightened up and turned slowly in Carolina’s direction. “What did you think of the mission today?”

“It was a success.” Carolina answered him, unsure of what Locus was looking for. “The Reds and Blues are out of the way, and you have—”

“Agent Washington.” Locus finished for her, cutting her off. “Temporarily.” 

Carolina nodded along. “Temporarily.” She echoed Locus. He gestured towards one of the two chairs in the room, the request obvious enough. Carolina settled into one of the two of them, but noticed that Locus didn’t bother to do the same. He didn’t seem to relax at all, really. 

A part of her wondered whether or not he was even capable of relaxing.

“He can’t be trusted.” Locus grumbled, turning away from Carolina. “Nor can the armies know that he is with us.”

The door opened, and Felix stepped into the room, relaxed and grinning but up to no good. 

Carolina and Locus both cast a look in his direction. 

Felix rolled his eyes. “Oh, thanks for getting started without me.” He snarled at Locus, tossing his helmet down onto the shared bed where it bounced slightly on landing. “Asshole.” 

“You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago.” Locus growled back, not having any of Felix’s nonsense. 

Felix settled down into the chair across from Carolina and relaxed back into it. He smirked at her, and for the first time Locus actually moved himself in the room. He placed himself at the table as well, standing just to Felix’s side like a loyal dog. 

“So, ” Felix began. “What’ve you told her so far?”

“Nothing.” Locus grumbled back.

“Hm, figures.” Felix muttered. “You never really were the people person, were you Locs?”

Locus didn’t answer, but Carolina did notice the slight balling of his hands into fists at his side. Aside from that, there was only the way that his gave seemed to track Felix as the man walked across the room and made himself comfortable. 

“Well, I guess that means that we should get started, shouldn’t we?”

“I suppose so.” Carolina said, since she had a pretty good feeling that it was going to be up to her and Felix to drive the conversation. Felix _ was _ right, Locus really didn’t seem to be much of a people person by any metric. If her initial meeting with him was any indicator, he was _ very _ far from being good at socializing with others. 

Felix kicked his feet up on the table and leaned back into his seat, tilting it back onto its back legs. 

“I figure we might as well just cut to the chase,” Felix started as he stretched himself out. “We picked up a pain in the ass of a prisoner today.” 

Carolina couldn’t help but think that Wash would feel _ honored _ to be referred to as a ‘pain in the ass of a prisoner.’ It seemed like the sort of thing that he would have actually prided himself upon, _ especially _ given who his current captors were. 

She needed to play dumb though, or at least make it seem like she didn’t know what Wash’s deal was. 

“And what does that have to do with me?” Carolina asked. 

Felix eyed her. “We want to bring on another person as a… temporary associate. Since Washington’s not playing nice with us.” 

“And you’re considering me?” Carolina asked, deciding to look away from Felix for the moment and at Locus, as directly as possible because she had a feeling that _ he _ would have had a problem with what was happening. 

But he didn’t respond. He didn’t say anything.

“We are.” Felix continued on, drawing Carolina’s attention back over to him and away from Locus. “No need to act so surprised, christ, give yourself a pat on the back or something instead.” 

Carolina swallowed hard, as much because it was part of her act as it was due to her own nerves. 

“Was there really nobody above me?” Carolina asked. “Maybe someone with seniority.” 

Locus spoke up in his characteristic grumble. “This isn’t a matter of seniority.” He said, still staying close to Felix even though Carolina imagined he didn’t strictly need to. “This is a matter of skills.”

And yeah, Carolina sure as hell would have done the same thing had she been the one needing to call the shots. Being around the longest didn’t mean anything if the same person couldn’t actually _ do _ anything. 

For her own teams, she probably wouldn’t have chosen half the people that technically were above her based upon seniority. 

Felix stretched himself out, grinning wide and vulpine. “See, what we’re looking for is _ talent. _ ” Felix said, with so much ease that it was hard to believe that he’d _ ever _ had a bad day in the field. “And since you happen to have a fuckton of it, Locs and I decided why the hell not.” 

He looked to his partner, like he was looking for some sort of approval from him. 

Locus gave Felix nothing. It only made Felix roll his eyes and cross his arms over his chest. “Point is, we’re choosing you.” Felix locked his gaze back onto Carolina. “You can act like you’re going to say no—” he cocked his head to the side, ever so slightly. “But let’s be real.” 

Carolina eyed him suspiciously. 

Felix stared back at her. “This might be the only chance you get for a fucking _ challenge _ around here. And me and Locs know better than anyone that supply runs and intercepting the occasional transport gets boring _ fast. _ Especially if you’re being wasted on them.”

She was already going to say yes, Carolina _ knew _ that. Somehow it didn’t stop what Felix was suggesting from being a tempting argument. 

God, what was _ wrong _ with her to be even _ thinking _ about that?

Epsilon’s absence felt more apparent than it ever had in that moment. If he’d been there, he would have talked her out of that idea. He would have called her on just how _ fucked up _ it was that she’d even _ consider _ that Felix was absolutely right. 

She let her gaze travel over to Locus.

The green-clad mercenary gave her nothing to go off of.

“So that's it?” Carolina asked, looking back to Felix. “I help you with this freelancer thing, and I’m suddenly one of the gang?”

“Nah, don’t get ahead of yourself.” Felix said. “Not a _ partner. _ Associate is as far as I’d go.”

“You’d be given more freedom to act.” Locus spoke up, but there was a nervous edge to his voice that his voice filter wasn’t enough to mask. “Better treatment and access to supplies. Higher on the chain of command.” 

“_ And, _” Felix spoke up, apparently feeling the need to go ahead and sweeten the pot. “You’d get a bigger paycheck, no need to thank us.”

Carolina swallowed. She was already pretty sure that she was going to end up saying yes to their request, but she couldn’t make it seem too much like she was going to be rushing into the decision. Anything to downplay herself as much as possible and gain whatever leverage she could in the process. 

“Mind if I sleep on it?” Carolina asked, shifting awkwardly where she stood. “You’re giving me a lot to think about it.” 

Felix rolled his eyes, but before he could sneer anything out Locus spoke. “You may.” He said. “We expect an answer in the morning.” 

Not ideal, but Carolina could work with it. 

“Alright.” She stood up straight and stretched. “I’m going to go to bed. Think on this.” 

“Right.” Felix muttered, clearly frustrated but not wanting to push the issue. 

Carolina took the chance to slip out of the barrack and begin the walk back over to her own. The plan to find Wash would have to wait until the next day, clearly. Besides, once she gave the mercs her answer as to whether she wanted to take their offer or not, she had a feeling she’d be seeing a lot more of Wash anyways. 

She didn’t sleep.

She couldn’t. 


End file.
